#Thinking about Ruth and feeling physically sick | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lolly-in-a-strange-land · 1 month ago

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The Rabbit and the Viper

Five

For the next few days, Maggie felt like she was in a daze. She’d been sick until she couldn’t anymore and she knew she’d have to tell Randy. He was flying back today, having caught an early flight on the 23rd and she desperately needed to tell him. She needed that comfort, that reassurance that the wedding wouldn’t happen. She’d be free before it did. She shifted onto her side on the bed and drafted a text.

‘Joseph asked for my hand in marriage. I’m so scared. I don’t want to marry him, I don’t want him to touch me again.’

She reread the text once it had been sent and it was only then she noticed she’d included the word ‘again’ at the end with a clear implication that Joseph had touched her before. The text from Randy that followed confirmed that she’d revealed too much.

‘I’m on my way sweetheart. Tomorrow, leave the commune early and I’ll come get you. Again? What do you mean by that, Maggie?’

‘I’m sorry. I will tell you. I should have said something. It’s not what you think.’

She didn’t want him to think she’d encouraged Joseph in any way. How could a 12 year old encourage a 43 year old man?

‘Please don’t apologize. I’m well aware of him being a fucking predator, sweetheart. I’m not sitting on a plane thinking that you encouraged any kind of relationship with him.’

‘I will talk about it with you, I promise.’

‘I know you will. There’s no rush once we’re together. You tell me whatever you need to in your own time. And I promise I’ll listen.’

This was what a healthy relationship was supposed to be. For all their talk about love and marriage, The Children of God didn’t practice any of it. Maggie lowered the phone and stared at the ceiling. She was determined now. She would escape.

*********

The following morning, she got up early and packed her bag. She took it with her when she went to St.Charles so this wasn’t suspicious. She put a couple of clothing items inside, her only other bra, some panties and the teddy bear her dad gave her before he departed. Her new Iphone was stored in her jeans pocket. She opened her door and headed downstairs to discover her mother already up and sitting with Joseph.

“There’s my future wife.” He grinned, and she felt the bile churn again.

“Good morning, Magdalena.” Ruth smiled.

“Good morning to you both,” Maggie said, shifting a little, aiming to act inconspicuous, “I was just going to head to Blanchette Park to pray for our happy marriage.”

“Now, my cherub,” Joseph said, standing and rounding the table. “You don’t need to go all that way. Pray here with your future husband.”

Maggie stepped back, not wanting him to be anywhere near her. Somewhere inside her, 12 year old Maggie cried and begged for him to stay away. And now, adult Maggie was determined to protect that small version of herself.

“It is part of my journey.” Maggie said.

“And I’m saying that you ain’t leaving this house, Magdalena.” He hissed.

She looked to Ruth, who just smiled benignly. Maggie’s eyes darted to Joseph and she knew she’d need to be careful. Any kind of lashing out, verbally or physically could ruin her escape plan and she hadn’t given up hope yet. She nodded and headed back upstairs, followed by Joseph. She could feel him behind her, feel his disgusting breath on the back of her neck.

They got to her door and she turned to face him. His smile was smug, so smug that she was almost tempted to sock him, a term she’d heard Randy say. She assumed it meant to cause harm.

“You ain’t leaving this house without my say so. You’re gonna be my little cherub and you’re gonna obey me, Magdalena.” Joseph said, and she winced when he grabbed her face, squeezing.

She whimpered and flinched back from his touch like it burned. He slammed the door shut and she heard the lock click. Maggie had planned for this though. She walked to her desk and opened it, grabbing the window key and unlocking her window, pushing them all the way open and looking down.

The houses were two storeys, but not very tall so a fall wouldn’t kill or seriously hurt anyone. It’d knock the wind out of her, but that was fine. She carefully climbed onto her desk and breathed in, then out. She’d looked up how to do this online and she jumped, then rolled as the grass came up to greet her.

She gasped at the impact and lay there for a few moments, catching her breath.The luxury of a long recovery wasn’t hers. She scrambled up and headed around the house. The kitchen was to the right of the house and the lounge was at the back. She could see into the window, could view her mother and Joseph at the breakfast table, talking over coffee. She headed around the left side of the property, ducking down near the window for the study in case the door was open. She marched down the grass and looked back. She felt a sense of smug satisfaction when Joseph saw her through the front window. His expression was one of stunned shock, followed by fury. She headed to Jude, who was basking in the sunshine.

“A pleasant morning to you, sister Magdalena.” He grinned.

“Good morning, Jude. I wish to make the trip to Blanchette Park to pray about my upcoming wedding.” She said, glancing around.

Her front door had opened and Joseph was headed this way now, fury written all over his features.

“But of course.” Jude said, nodding.

And that was all she needed to start walking as quickly as she could towards the gate. She heard Joseph yell to stop her, but she didn’t look back, slipping out the gate and heading down the Katy Trail. She was safe, she was free. She got as far as DuSable Park and then she heard the sound of tyres behind her. She scrambled off the gravel and into the play area, thankfully vacant of children.

She climbed the jungle gym and hid near the slide where the metal obscured her. The car drove closer and she peeked out. It was one of the Jeeps the church used. Joseph’s oldest son, Cain, was behind the wheel. Joseph was in the back seat and Jude was seated in the front. Both Jude and Joseph held rifles and Maggie felt her heart rate pick up into a gallop.

“Most likely went to town. She can’t have gotten far.” Joseph was saying.

“Brother Cain, drive the Jeep into town.” Jude said.

He looked furious too, face beet red with anger. Of course he was. She’d deceived him for weeks now and he was narcissistic enough to be furious at this. His ego had taken a beating from it. The Jeep steered down the gravel, heading towards St.Charles. Maggie watched, waiting for it to disappear around the bend in the trail. She slowly climbed down the jungle gym and looked back up the trail head, vowing that she would come back and save Chastity.

She moved down the trail, sneakers crunching the gravel underfoot. The sun had fully risen now, coating everything a golden yellow hue. She made it to town and made her way down Main Street. She could no longer see the Jeep, but she was sure they’d head to Blanchette Park and when the search proved fruitless, they’d search Main Street for her.

She needed a place to hide before they could find her and drag her back to be wed to Joseph. It was looking to be a busy Friday on Main Street with shops setting up. There were many open and locals and tourists milled about, enjoying the Spring time in Missouri. It wasn’t yet hot enough for locals to complain. There was one place she could go and that was to Melissa. She practically ran to Grandma’s Cookie’s. The sign said it didn’t open till 10am, but she could see Melissa inside, setting up. She knocked the door and Melissa looked up, eyes going wide at the sight of Maggie’s frantic face.

She rushed around the counter and hurriedly unlocked the door, ushering Maggie inside and relocking the door.

“Maggie, what’s goin’ on? Talk to me.” Melissa said.

“I-i escaped this morning, but they’re looking for me, Melissa. P-please, they have a Jeep and guns.” Maggie said.

Melissa’s brown eyes widened and narrowed with a rage Maggie hadn’t seen yet. The other woman carefully guided Maggie to a door behind the counter.

“Assholes chasin’ down a young woman with guns,” Melissa seethed, “Quick, hide in here. I think I see the Jeep. Don’t you come out and text your man while you’re in there.”

Maggie ducked into the storage room. It smelled of freshly baked cookies and there were boxes of ingredients, all labeled and dated. She peeked through the gap and saw Jude get out of the Jeep. Melissa opened the door, but leaned on the frame, not allowing him inside.

“Good morning, ya’ll. What can I help you fine gentleman with?” Melissa asked.

“Good morning, ma’am. We’re looking for a young woman named Magdalena. She’s this gentleman’s wife and he surely misses her. You haven’t seen her, by chance?” Jude asked, and Maggie almost vomited at the fake voice he used.

“You got a picture of the young lady so I can keep my eyes peeled?” Melissa asked.

“I do, in fact. This is her,” Jude said, and Maggie could see him hand something over, “She’s a lovely, devout girl, but she’s very sensitive and prone to hysterics. We just want her back safe.”

“Hmm,” Melissa said, sucking her teeth, “I’m sure you do. I’m sure she’s well loved. I haven’t seen her at all.”

“No? Would you mind if we searched your store?” Jude said.

“I’d mind a great deal. Ain’t nothin’ back there, but my cooking ingredients and secret recipe,” Melissa said, and Maggie heard the change in Melissa’s voice. “And you can lower your gun, Mr. Preacher. You ain’t a cop and have no jurisdiction to be wavin’ that thing around.”

“My apologies, ma’am. I’m sure you can appreciate how worried we are. If you see her, please let us know and we’ll come and retrieve her. We can also offer a cash reward.” Jude said.

“How virtuous of ya’ll. You gotta a lot of money up at that compound?” Melissa sniped.

“The lord provides.” Jude said.

“I’m sure he does. Shame he don’t provide for people down at the homeless shelter and soup kitchen on the other side of town.” Melissa said.

Maggie listened and she pulled out her phone, carefully texting Randy to come and get her. She looked up again and saw Jude smile that tight lipped smile. His ego was clearly not appreciating Melissa’s tone.

“Well, we shall leave you alone. Please let your fellow store owners know about our beloved Magdalena and the reward.” He said, and Maggie watched him head back to the Jeep.

“I sure as shit will do.” Melissa said, and she stepped away from the door, shutting and locking it before mumbling, “Fuck off with that bullshit, actin’ all high and mighty with me. Mags, it’s safe, c’mon out now.”

Maggie pushed open the storage room door and stepped out, still clutching her bag strap and phone. Melissa motioned for her to sit down at one of the wooden tables. She got Maggie a hot coffee and a pecan cookie, then sat opposite her, making sure Maggie drank the coffee and ate her cookie.

“Your man on his way?” Melissa asked.

“Y-yeah, he’s coming.” Maggie said.

“He’s Bob’s boy through and through. Bet he was raging when you told him. What made you run, Mags?” Melissa asked.

“The man in the passenger seat was my future husband.” Maggie said.

“That man? The oily fucker who looked 70?” Melissa said, slamming her hands onto the table, “My blood pressure be on the rise just hearin’ this bullshit. Thought he was lying."

Someone knocked at the door and Maggie looked up, relief flooding her when she saw Randy at the door. Melissa smiled at last, standing up and walking over.

“And look who probably broke the fuckin’ speed limit gettin’ his ass here.” Melissa laughed.

She unlocked the door and stepped to the side to let Randy in. Maggie got up and rounded the table and she felt all the relief flood her body when he hugged her, arms wrapping around her and giving her that sense of safety that no one else could. Melissa shifted and went to stand near the counter, watching them. Two kids in love.

“You’re ok, sweetheart? They didn’t hurt you?” He asked, cupping Maggie’s face.

“I’m ok. They have guns though. I’m sorry.” Maggie whispered, leaning into his touch.

“No more apologies. I’m here now. I’ve got you.” He replied.

He held her again and then looked at Melissa, who was watching on with the kind of smugness that most older adults had when they looked at younger adults that they deemed to be kids.

“Haven’t seen you since you were this tall,” Melissa said, motioning with her hand, “And now you’re this tall, boy. What did your daddy feed you? How is that man by the way?”

“He’s good. Did his back in the other week, but still good.” Randy replied.

“‘Course he did. Your momma still up at the hospital?” Melissa asked.

“Yeah, she’s still up there. She’s on the geriatrics ward, they give her less run around than the normal wards.” Randy said.

“And she has all the qualifications for dealin’ with your daddy,” Melissa said, softly, “Anyway, give ‘em both my best. You two best get outta here before those men in the Jeep come back. No doubt they gonna circle the block a few times.”

Melissa walked them to the door and Randy stepped out first, glancing up and down Main Street, taking Maggie’s hand and guiding her to the range rover. Melissa kept watch as he opened the passenger door for Maggie. She climbed in and buckled her seatbelt, looking at Melissa and smiling.

“When we see each other again, you gon’ be a lot happier, Mags.” Melissa said, stepping back inside the shop.

Randy climbed in the driver’s side and he signalled before steering the range rover out onto the street. He was on high alert for the Jeep now. The whole looking for her, he could get. They were a cult and one of their ‘flock’ had absconded, but why the guns? She was small and no threat so why had they felt the need for firepower? Maggie was staring out the window, flinching whenever she saw a vehicle that looked entirely too big.

The shock of it had finally caught up with her and she looked away from the window, exhaling a sob. If they weren’t driving down one of the main roads in town, he would have pulled over– other drivers could get fucked – and hugged her. Instead he set his hand on her knee and she shifted in the seat, clearly wanting to get closer. Her small hands touched his hand, neither of them being big enough to fully cover his hand. He went to move his hand to tap the turn signal, but she held on.

“Promise you can have my hand back in a moment, babygirl.” He murmured, rubbing her leg and then removing his hand.

He tapped the signal and turned, then set his hand back on her leg. She relaxed again and exhaled a soft, shaky breath. She angled her body in the seat so her head was resting against the leather of the car seat and she could look at him. She looked smaller and frailer, but she was here, she was safe now.

She was quiet on the drive to his and she flinched when he hit the button for the gates. The two wrought iron gates slid open and he steered the car up the driveway and parked in front of the garage. Maggie glanced behind the car just in time to see the gates shut and for the outside world to be obscured by a ten foot wall. She relaxed even further as she climbed out of the range rover.

Two other cars were parked up and she stared at them, looking at her warped expression on the hood of the Lamborghini. He took her hand and she followed him towards the house, unlocking the door and leading her inside. Her eyes widened, this wasn’t what she was used to.

The houses on the commune were all very basic. The lounges had a couch and a coffee table with no tv as secular television was considered a bad influence and a distraction. This lounge was huge; all hardwood floor with a large couch, a coffee table and a huge, flatscreen tv. Bigger than the one in Jude’s home.

Allowing her to explore and take her time seemed to be the best option. She looked nervous and unsure, like a small rabbit. Randy smiled as he watched her. She stepped further in and looked at the modern kitchen, eyes going wide again. The kitchens in the commune were small, basic too. There was an oven and stove, counters and a few cupboards. Fridges were a luxury and any meats had to be collected from the communal fridge or freezer in the out building.

This kitchen was huge too. The lounge led onto it and there was an island in the centre with stools. There were grey cupboards with sleek grey sideboards. She was amazed by the fridge and stepped closer, looking at the strange hole in it. She tapped the button on it and squealed when some ice came out.

“It spat ice at me.” She said, and giggled.

“Yeah, pretty cool, right?” He said, and almost laughed at that, “You want a drink, sweetheart?”

“What drinks are there?” She asked.

At the commune there was just water and sometimes peach iced tea, if they could get the mix for it. Randy walked over and she stepped back as he opened the fridge. She was stunned by the choice. There were sodas, bottles of sports drinks, a jug of water and beer.

“I’ve also got coffee if you want that. The coffee machine can make any type of coffee.” He said, and looked at her.

“There are other types of coffee?” She asked.

“Yeah, all different types.” He said.

“Can I have one of the different types tomorrow morning?” She asked.

“Yeah, you can have one before we leave.” He replied.

“Leave?” She asked.

“Yeah, I’m takin’ you to Rhode Island with me, Maggie.” He said.

“Think I’ll burn down the house?” She giggled.

“This you admitting to bein’ an arsonist, babygirl?” He asked.

“I admit to nothing.” She said, and she smiled at last.

“Innocent until proven guilty.” He said, and she laughed when he pulled her closer, kicking the fridge door shut.

Her squeal of laughter echoed and it was tinged with relief too. She was free and she was here. His arms wrapped around her and she looked up.

“You’re too tall.” She mumbled, pouting.

“Not a complaint I hear often, babygirl,” Randy said, “Could it be that you’re too short.”

“Nope.” She said.

“Really? And how tall are you, Maggie?” He asked.

“Four foot ten.” She said, and he laughed then. She was tiny.

“I’m sorry, were you seriously just tellin’ me that you’re not short. You are several inches shy of bein’ a full fledged oompa loompa.” He said.

“I don’t know what that is,” She giggled again, “How tall are you?”

“Six foot five. Can see you backin’ up, babygirl,” He smirked then, “Think I can’t catch you if you run? I can take two steps and get ya.”

“Meanie,” She said, “You can pick me up?”

“I can absolutely pick you up, sweetheart.” He said.

He shifted and scooped her up, gripping her under her thighs and lifting her, making her squeal out another laugh. Her hands gripped his shoulders and she looked over her shoulder at the floor, that now felt like it was miles away. She looked back at him and he smiled at her.

“Cute smile.” She said.

“Flatterer.” He teased.

“No, it is. You have little fangs.” She said.

“All the better to bite you with, sweetheart.” He said, and her cheeks went pink.

Her legs wrapped around his waist and she saw the flicker of darkness in those blue eyes, like a storm rolling in. He was staring at her and her cheeks went redder. He moved and set her on the counter top, hands resting on either side of her legs, caging her in. She looked up and her nose almost bumped his. His lips lingered against hers and she swallowed thickly.

Was he about to kiss her? All rational thought left her mind when his lips finally brushed hers, skin on skin contact and warmth. His lips were soft and Maggie worried that her lips were chapped. He pulled back, lingering and teasing her, and then kissing her again. This time, his lips moved against hers. Maggie’s brain stalled and she wasn’t sure what to do. He pulled back, lips still inches away.

“Talk to me, sweetheart.” Randy murmured.

“I-i don’t know what to do, also my lips are a little chapped.” She said, shyly.

“Copy what I do, ok?” He said, and she nodded. He kissed her again and she tilted her head up, returning the kiss and copying him. They parted briefly.

“L-like that?” She asked, timidly.

“Yeah, just like that.” He murmured.

He kissed her again because it felt like second nature at this point. She kissed back in the most tentative way, but she returned the passion, small hands gripping his t-shirt. One of his hands rested on her thigh and the other cupped her face, gently guiding her. Her lips were soft and smooth, fears of having chapped lips were obviously just her nerves. She squished herself closer and wrapped her legs around him again.

The moan she exhaled against his mouth when his tongue slid between her lips was the hottest sound he’d ever heard, it was innocent and erotic in equal measure. The hand on her thigh slid higher and she tensed then, eyes popping open, tentative arousal replaced by genuine fear. It was a reaction he’d not expected and he pulled back, but kept her still on the counter, steadying her.

“Sssh, babygirl, easy.” He said, and her wide brown eyes found his.

“S-sorry, I panicked. D-don’t touch there. It’s damaged.” She whispered, tears making little streaks down her face.

“Damaged?” He asked, and she nodded.

“Y-yeah, you shouldn’t touch there.” She said, and he could see the moment she started to hyperventilate. His hand on thigh had moved to her waist, holding her, keeping her safe and the hand on her face forced her focus on him.

“Breathe for me, sweetheart,” He said, gently, “Inhale for 4 seconds.”

She inhaled and held it for the 7 seconds he requested and then exhaled for 8 seconds. Her gaze met his blue eyes and she did the breathing exercise a further two times until she stopped panicking.

“S-sorry, I ruined the moment.” She whispered, still crying.

“You couldn’t possibly ruin anything, sweetheart.” He said, and she looked embarrassed now.

That reaction of terror wasn’t something he’d anticipated and the pieces started to slot into place. Her text earlier about Joseph touching her again. Again being the key word there. Something had happened and judging by her extreme reaction, it had been something non-consensual. She was still apologizing, like she thought this was a deterrent. Nothing about her could deter him.

“Hold onto my shoulders again, Maggie.” He said, and she did.

She was small and so easy to pick up. He carried her to the couch and sat down with her straddling him. She still looked so unsure and anxious. Handling her would take a level of care he’d never shown before. His exes knew what they were getting with him, and it wasn’t usually gentle and loving. Maggie would need that and his past self, that arrogant brat from 2004 would have hated it, but now all there was was protectiveness and a need to take care of her and show her that she deserved love. She wiped her eyes with the back of a very small hand and whimpered when he cupped her face, wiping away the tears with his thumb. Her doe eyes lifted and she looked at him again.

“I don’t want to re-traumatise you, sweetheart. You talk to me in as much, or as little detail as you want.” He said, and she nodded.

“The Children of God home school all the kids, and I’m no different.” Maggie said.

He nodded, figured that would be the case. They seemed culty enough that secular schools wouldn’t be an option. Maggie had never experienced any of it in any normal sense; no school friends, no after school clubs, no homework. She looked embarrassed again now.

“I-i can read though and I can do basic math,” She mumbled, wiping her eyes again. “And I can draw really well.”

She sounded proud of those little skills she’d developed in such an abusive environment and when another tear streaked down her face, he carefully wiped it. He didn’t want to interrupt her because this was important, she had to feel comfortable to discuss anything with him.

“We had one teacher called Joseph. We start school at 7 and he teaches us and then the girls leave school at 12 to learn to cook and do house stuff from our moms.” She said.

“So, domestic slavery. Nothin’ says love like forcing women into that role.” Randy said, and christ he couldn’t help but be angry for her.

He tried to imagine the women he was around; women like Sable and Trish being forced into a role like that. Maggie’s world was isolated and so far removed from what women could achieve nowadays.

“O-on my last day of school I was in the classroom, cleaning. It was my day that day,” She said, and she swallowed thickly, “J-joseph came in and he started talking to me, asking me questions about how devout I was and I was still so devoted to the church that I answered. H-he backed me into a corner and h-his hands….they went d-down there and it hurt. I-i couldn’t stop him, I tried to stop him.”

It was every bit as vile as he’d expected and that didn’t lessen the torrent of fury. This 43 year old man had cornered a 12 year old girl, this fucker had traumatized her. Her reaction earlier had been so visceral and devastating. He leaned his head back on the couch and it took everything not to go to that commune, find the fucker, and punch him until he stopped moving, but Maggie was on his lap, crying into her hands and the need to comfort her won out.

“Sssh, it’s ok, babygirl. C’mere, let me hold you.” Randy said.

She leaned forward and her small body pressed against his. Her head rested against his chest and her tears leaked onto his black t-shirt, darkening the fabric. She was apologizing again, little hurried apologies and he stroked her hair, fingers carding through the brown strands. Her apologies petered out as she enjoyed having her hair played with. Her body relaxed more, and she weighed barely anything despite being curvy.

“T-the classroom door opened and he stepped away from me, but his fingers had been down there and it had stung. Pain happens when something is broken.” She whispered, softly.

“In a sense, yeah. Pain can happen when somethin’ breaks,” Randy said, and she tilted her head to look up at him, “But it can happen and nothin’ can be broken. Like when you stub your toe on a coffee table, you’ve not broken it, but it hurts.”

“I-it’s like that?” She asked.

“Yeah, and when you’re ready, I can show you that it won’t hurt.” He said, kissing her forehead.

“And if I get overwhelmed?” She asked.

“Then I’ll stop, Maggie. Your comfort and safety are more important than my needs.” He said.

“But I don’t want to be a burden.” She said, and his lips lingered against her forehead.

“You could never be a burden, sweetheart. Let me give you what you deserve because you deserve to be treated with love. I will treasure all that you are, Maggie, and all that you want to be.” He said, and she sniffled.

“I can only cook stews.” She said.

“You hit the jackpot, babygirl. I can cook. My mom taught me. I’ll cook for you.” He said.

“B-but it’s my job to cook and clean.” She said.

“No, it’s not. You do whatever you want. If you want to cook, then you can, if you want we can split chores. If you want to go back to school then you can, if you want to tag along with me then you can. You do whatever you want, Maggie.” He said.

“I can come with you?” She asked.

“Yeah, if you’re happy going on the tours with me, then you can. I would never say no to my beautiful girl comin’ with me,” Randy said, and she smiled shyly, “You get to choose now, sweetheart. You’re your own person. I just want to be the one that gets to be with you, and support you.”

“So nice to me.” She mumbled.

“Don’t tell anyone, you’ll ruin my reputation.” He said, chuckling, resting his head on the back of the couch again.

“Big, mean, scary Viper.” She giggled, and her hand lifted, poking his cheek.

“If you value your fingers you’ll stop.” He said, almost laughing again.

Her hand touched his face then and she could feel the hint of stubble under her hand. She was so gentle about it and he’d never had a woman be this gentle with her touches. She touched him like he was made of glass, like he was the delicate one. It was something he hadn’t realized he needed because he’d never had it.

“So, what did you bring in the bag?” He asked.

“Not much. I can show you.” She said.

She climbed off his lap and he felt the absence. When she scampered back over, he pulled her back onto his lap and she unzipped the bag. It was purple in color, looked handmade and was fraying around the edges. Inside was the dungarees she’d worn the other day, a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, a teddy bear, a bra that had seen better days and two pairs of panties.

“I didn’t bring any of the skirts because I don’t like them.” She said.

“We’ll need to get you some new clothes, sweetheart,” Randy said, “We’re travelling tomorrow so it’ll have to be tomorrow when we get to Rhode Island.”

“Oh, I don’t need new stuff.” She said, shyly.

“I think you’ll like the experience of shoppin’ but it’ll have to be with one of the Divas because I can’t stand shopping.” He said.

“Divas?” Maggie asked.

“Female wrestlers. I’ll see if one of them can take you while I sort out some promo shit and do rehearsal. Beth will be there and so will Rosa. I’ll ask one of them.” He said.

“Who are you facing?” She asked, softly.

“Batista, Shane and Triple H.” He said.

“On your own?” She asked, eyes going wide.

“No, I’ll have Cody and Ted with me,” He replied, and smiled. “I got you somethin’ too.”

Another gift? He dug into his jeans pocket, grabbing his wallet and handing her an ID card. She looked at it. On one of their dates, he’d taken her to get her photo taken, told her not to smile.

“A passport card.” She said.

“Yeah, for internal travel within the US. We’ll need to arrange for a proper passport for international travel though. Ideally before June since we’ll be travelling to Helsinki.” He said.

“I don’t know what to say,” She said, and she looked like she might cry again. She looked incredibly grateful, like she’d been handed something valuable and to her it must have been, “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome, Maggie. Did you want somethin’ to eat now? You wanna try KFC?” He asked.

“Fried chicken?” She asked.

“Yeah, and I’ll get you whatever drink you want.” Randy said.

“Do they do milkshakes?” She asked.

“They do lemonades and sodas.” He said.

“Can I have a flavored lemonade, please?” She asked.

“Your wish is my command, sweetheart.” He smiled, and she blushed again.

She was instantly amazed when the food order arrived, devouring her portion of chicken and enjoying the cherry lemonade. Afterwards, she passed out on the couch, sleeping off the exhaustion and food. He sat next to her and carefully moved her so her head was on his lap. She mumbled his name and he stroked her hair. She fell back to sleep.

#randy orton #randy orton fanfic #wwe raw #wwe smackdown #The Rabbit and the Viper

8 notes · View notes

alaydabug2 · 9 months ago

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Yeah so I decided to take a happy song and make it sad again 🙂

Enjoy ☺️

(Keefe pov)

"Come on," Ro groaned. "Are you really not going to tell her?"

"No! Stop bugging me." Keefe turned around in his chair. "She's with Fitz. She's happy. If she wants him, who am I to tell her otherwise?"

"Don't you think you should at least let her know that she has another option."

"No. I'm not going to do that to her. That's going to complicate things, and I can't lose her."

Keefe sighed and went back to trying to draw the scene he was working on. It was when he had pranked his father the other day, covering him with goo.

"You've already lost her," Ro muttered. "She's with Captain Perfect."

"Ok and? That's none of my business. I need to stay out of it."

She rolled her eyes and stalked off.

-------------------------------

"I can't believe it!" Keefe faked his smile. "I'm proud of you, dude. Finally manned up and proposed."

The war was over. It had been for quite a few years now. Sophie and Fitz had stayed together through it all. He didn't want his friends to hurt, but that small, extremely selfish part of him hoped that they'd break up. Give one more chance for him to shoot his shot. It never came.

"Thanks." Fitz's grin was so elated and genuine, Keefe felt awful for being jealous. Not that he'd ever tell him that.

He was happy for his friends. He truly was. But the emotional turmoil in his heart...

But... he was too late. And he knew that. The only thing he could do now was grit his teeth through it all and pretend he didn't feel his heart breaking apart every time he saw them together. Keep his tears in until he was safe in his room and cry himself to sleep.

It was torture. But he could do it. He'd been doing it for fifteen years at that point.

No, he couldn't....

-------------------------------

Day of the wedding came. Ro had come to visit for it. Instead of the gloating he was expecting for never saying anything, there was a soft look on her face.

"You alright?" She asked.

Keefe shrugged. He adjusted his tie. "I'm ok," he lied.

"No, you're not."

"I'm happy for them," he insisted.

"That's not what I asked." She moved closer. "I asked if you were alright."

He cleared the thickness from his throat. "I have to be. I'm the best man."

Ro pursed her lips. She let out a sigh. "Ok, then. If you say so."

He played off the water in his eyes during the ceremony as tears of joy. They were anything but. He forced his lips into a smile. He had to make it through the ceremony. He couldn't have a breakdown at his best friend's wedding over the girl he was marrying because he loved her.

Gosh, he loved her. It physically hurt to watch. A constant beating to his heartstrings.

Then, it was announced for the bride and groom to kiss. Oh, he couldn't watch. It made him feel sick.

He had to, though. Had to pretend it was all alright. Cause he couldn't let all that hard work of pretending for years go down the drain. Two very important friendships depended on it.

He still couldn't stomach it, though.

The reception was next. He found a quiet table to sit at far off in the corner. In the distance, Sophie and Fitz were having their first dance. He could feel the waves of joy coming off of Sophie from where he was sitting.

They were happy.

That's what he had to keep reminding himself to keep him sane. They were happy.

He picked one of the dandelions out of the vase on the table. He gently blew on it. He stopped himself when he was about to make his wish.

For so many years, he would wish for Sophie to miraculously change her mind. But... that ship had sailed. It was hopeless now.

Instead, he wished he could get over his feelings. But he knew there was no hope for that either.

He could feel his composure breaking. A stray tear fell down his cheek. He smudged it away and fled to the bathroom.

He could only make it to lock himself in a stall before breaking out into heavy sobs.

All hope was gone. The girl he loved was with his best friend and he couldn't do anything to change that.

#kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #kotlc keefe sencen #kotlc sophie foster #kotlc fitz vacker #Spotify

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q-ueen-potato · 8 months ago

Note

THE DEVOL'S WIFE AUUUUUUUU

Ford is originally really cagey around Bill because he thinks he's still Filbrick but also Bill doesn't even try to act like Filbrick which comforts him. He's like "are you gonna hit me?" and Bill's like "You know how easy it is to make a child cry? It's boring, why would I do that" and Ford chooses to see that statement as a good thing

I WAS ABOUT TO MAKE A POST ABOUT IT.

But for initial context.

Caryn Pines, at this time know as Caryn Romanoff, always had a passion about the mind...the physical and the beyond..

She studied dreams and concepts, she had a passion for psychology.

When she was 16, she together with a friend found some would study aboud mindscape and other stuff and during a curious moment she and Ruth(the friend) summoned Bill Cipher.

For alimg time Bill watched Caryn close feeling she had a sparkle. Caryn has her inner eye open...even if she doesn't believe on it

They would meet again years later. Caryn was watching her two boys while Fillbrick took care of the store.

Stanley was sick and she didn't knew if he could survive...the doctors said was best stay home at this moment...

During that night, she saw Bill again 8 years.

Bill offered a deal, he could cure Stanley if she got him a puppet to walk around.

She wasn't stupid and knew what he wanted, she offered herself but Bill had other people in mind...he asked for Fillbrick and without a blink Caryn shaked his hand..

The rain was heavy, the lightning was a triangle and a sound was heard downstairs...

Wasn't Fillbrick that came to that room later.

...

For some reason Bill didn't wanted to leave so he stayed around. Caryn started calling him William Because for her "Bill" wasn't respectful enough to be her husband..

Bill and Caryn had a somehow married life. It was her husband's body and on the deal Bill asked for the spouse.

Bill doesn't care about the parenting part but he is not stopping them for trying... Caryn and him argue if he is staying he can at least pretend not smile when the boys fall from a cliff.

Bill actually enjoys watching Caryn work on her tarot because she is actually scary accurate on her reading and predictions.

Bill keeps the Pines store because you van find useful (and cursed) stuff there

Caryn and Bill give a split once and Shermie appears

#gravity falls au #gravity falls #The Devil's Wife au #bill cipher #caryn pines

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cerenemuxse · 1 year ago

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So i finally watched BWBA (Season 24)

My very useless review of BWBA Season 24

Please make your own opinions. Don't be like me (way before this) and base yours off of everyone's else. That's why I put useless, because it is if you hadn't made your own.

Surprisingly, this season was in plain sight, as well as other T&F seasons.

Emily's Best Friend

I hated it. I still hate. Sorry, but the 2-12 interaction could not save it. I still love that moment though. To me, Emily is OOC.

Thomas' Fuzzy Friend

Wholesome filler episode with a ref to Thomas the Babysitter, which is one of my all-time favorites. I love it.

The Great Little Engine Show

Eh- i like the mention of the model engines. Don't have anything against it but it doesn't stick out. .3.

Thomas and the Forest Engines

I like it. :D I like the storyline about why certain engines are allocated to certain places.

Emily to the Rescue

Peak Emily moment. I love it but why did it take so long for her to get her number??? 😭 Oh, well. I still love it.

I love that bring out her caring aspect. It's like her intro episode. (I finally watched it and MAN, i wish I got that Emily growing up 😭 she just came off as a bossy big sister /neg)

Shankar's Makeover

Shankar's like me. /srs I like this episode for addressing situations like this. Stage fright, not wanting attention, and being someone who keeps to themself. Nice episode.

Nia and the Unfriendly Elephant

The references are nice. I love Nia's love for animals and her assignment to the park. Before, her job wasn't permanent. Also, Belle is here. I love her. I love them. I like it. :]

Until I watch all of Nia's episodes, I won't be commenting on how she supposedly repeats learning things from Kenya all the damn time.

However, I do have a problem with the argument being made. It feels like it dimisses that different cultures interact like this most of the time, bringing up the ways they handle certain situations. From my expierence, i hear where these differences come from all the time, even if I know the person well enough.

I just don't see the problem with Nia bringing up how things different are between her old home and Sodor. It feels relatable, despite the fact that I'm Hispanic (Mexican), and it makes sense.

James the Super Engine

I ADORE THIS EPISODE. I've talked about it before but in short, I love how James is portrayed. Could've EASILY written him as a hero who gave up and didn't bother checking up on Rebecca when she yelled for help. But no, they went the right way. James IS caring but considering the environment he's had to work in for so many years, you can see why he doesn't show it. But here, HE DOES.

And when he realizes that Rebecca is in trouble? Its his normal voice, whereas before, it was his superhero voice.

My honest reaction whenever i watch it:

Thomas' Not-So-Lucky Day

Eh- I think the lesson is pretty good about getting those good things by thinking positively and working towards them instead of letting luck be the decision maker.

Ace's Brave Jump

I dont care.

Nia's Bright Idea

W Nia for being resourceful and bringing things together. I like it.

Cleo's First Snow

I like it.

Sonny's Second Chance

I like it.

Thomas and the Inventor's Workshop

I dont care for Ruth but I like it. Its decent.

The Inventor's Bridge

That bridge is going to fall over but there's probably physics that I don't understand that makes it make sense. At the end though, i could care less.

Yong Bao and the Tiger

I've seen it before.

I initially didn't like it due to the dynamics of the story. Like why is a massive engine like Yong Bao shunting in the yard?

However, i like it more now. I can dismiss the dynamic.

Gordon and Rebecca, Coming Through!

I've talked about it before. Its confusing, especially with its placement. Would've worked better as the episode following 'Confusion Without Delay".

Despite this, i like their dynamic.

Gordon's behavior is tiresome. I usually ignore it but i've seen enough of CGI TTTE that im getting sick and tired out of it. I've heard that his character growth was forgotten but i havent seen enough to have a say.

Kenji on the Rails

Mixed feelings on this one because Hiro's leaving. :( Stop writing off my favorite characters.

In my second, I noticed Hiro's "konnichiwa" and got thrown off completely. Odd how they're JUST now bringing out Hiro's first language. I don't remember seeing this brought out before BWBA.

Not really a review because of that. I'm sour about it.

Cleo the Road Engine

Ah, the intro episode. I thought it was in season 23. Its just Thomas and Bertie rewritten but Cleo is avoiding her jobs. No, it somehow didn't destroy my liking to her.

Thomas' Animal Friends

I think its cute but Thomas would've straight up ignored Gordon.

Overall impression: Not as shitty as its made to be. It has its good moments and bad moments.

I'm so glad that I wasn't bombarded with fantasy sequences with this one. Those are just plain ridiculous, for the most part. In some episodes, it fits like James the Super Engine and Thomas' Animal Friends. The one in Emily's Best Friend made me cringe but I enjoyed it because its Edward and Emily.

Listen, I'm desperate for 2-12 content, man, and I've been ignoring model era for a good while because I just dont want to.

Uh, that's it.

#muxse meeps #cerenemuxse

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ashton-ryder · 5 months ago

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Ashton was exhausted, physically emotionally psychologically, his shoulder hurt more than the past few days. And not gonna lie, he slept in for the first time in years, decades maybe. It was unlike Ash to wake up after the sun, but perhaps coming back home closer to dawn and making sure Jer was alright in his own bed before he sought the comforts of unconsciousness had the effect of wanting to sit in that state longer considering being conscious sucked for the last 24 hours. He once again only left making sure they were both fine after crawling back into being awake, then did he get to work for the day. If only just the most minor bits of work, giving himself the grace of rest for working to clean up the night before, these were the rare few times Ashton admitted to himself too being too tired to do anything more.

The garden was easy enough to get to, Beau taking care of most things that day already. And so he simply came by in the late afternoon to check on the empty glass beer bottles he left out from the night before to dry, hoping they'll come in useful one day. It was good to see Rosie out of her sickness, the earlier roster had been divvy out without her, being sick, though Ruth assured everyone that it was just a common flu. So there wasn't much to do, Ash didn't have the brainspace left to think of what they could both do. "Hmm?" Ash looked up when Rosie spoke, he was sitting on the ground making sure each bottle was cleaned and the smell of alcohol was gone before putting them aside to be store away.

"Oh, it's nothing," he shook his head, neither Emily nor Charlie had been too involved with the garden, they had enough to focus on down below with the supplies and diner, "no no, all of this for Spring, was Beau's doing." It was impressive seeing the NFL athlete get down to a little bit of nerdy work with him and sharing all the plans he drafted up for this season and even the next. The man was insanely talented and Ash still gets pleasantly surprised by his good friend. It was good to see him come back out and continue to find the reason to do so everyday.

"He practically helped prep the entire space for Spring when I was out of commission too after the beach," Ashton continued before turning the attention to her, "glad to see you up and about again though, you feeling better?"

@ashton-ryder

where: rooftop NATURALLY when: april 2nd because this day hasn't already been really rough on him, did he even sleep since last night who knows I certainly don't BUT we know he wouldn't shirk his plant duties even if he were dead

There was an elephant in the room even when the room was a rooftop. Most everyone knew at this point; Rosie still felt like the last even if she wasn't. Not that it was a contest or anything, but she thought she'd earned the rung closer to Charlie on the ladder of trust before Ash. It was a petty thing to think... Ash did so much for the family. Rosie only ever looked out for Charlie. She didn't deserve that closer spot... but did she deserve to be told what was happening instead of finding out like the rest of the residents had? Everything changed with the newcomers. Or returnees in the Roses case. She'd never felt so far away from Charlie and being quarantined in her apartment with the flu for so long only made it worse. Rosie picked up an empty plastic pot then set it back down. She picked up the pruning sheers, but in turning to the plants nearest her on the table, nothing needed deadheading. The diner... Charlie's confidance... now the garden -- was she not needed her anymore either? Ash looked normal, working away at the plants who were happy to see the April sunshine. He did that a lot... looked fine when everything wasn't. She felt a thorny vine of betrayal twisting around her heart. Weren't they friends too? Charlie's secret wasn't his to share, but he knew how close Charlie and Rosie were. Had he known before Rosie was sick? Had he looked her right in the face while she chatted about Charlie and Emily's new joining to the kitchen staff, knowing how hurt she'd be once this all came to light? "Thanks for um... looking after everything." She'd meant it about the plants, but realized it could be taken differently so she made the distinction quickly, "I don't know how much Emily is involved with the gardening stuff even though she's really great with the diner, so maybe it was just you or --" Charlie sometimes helped with the plants, more so the random ones Rosie kept everywhere around the building now she had free reign, but Charlie's name stuck in Rosie's throat. Rosie set about picking fresh mint, always in stock, maybe she and Ember could scrounge up everything to make mojitos later.

#it was debatable whether he slept ajsgdjfjd depends on his final thread that night we'll see #aw hi rosie #ch: Rosie #;Rosie4 #;Rooftop #;April2nd

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kimicornio · 3 years ago

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This idea comes from Mahou Tsukai no Yome. Chise and Ruth's relationship.

In this AU there is MAGIC

Shanks is left to take care of a sick Buggy. But due to high fever Buggy ends up dying.

Shanks, all desperate, checks his pulse, performs CPR on him while yelling at him to continue with him. When doing CPR, Shanks thinks that his first kiss with Buggy would be different.

Shanks, who has magic, panics and to prevent Buggy's soul from crossing over to the other side, he decides to make Buggy his familiar.

Shanks crying with joy seeing that Buggy is still with him. And Buggy all disoriented.

Shanks hugging Buggy but can't touch him. Buggy still has to practice to get fit. (starts slowly. Shanks holding Buggy's hand, stroking Buggy's hair, a kiss...)

They then realize that they can now talk telepathically to each other.

Shanks had to take care of Buggy's body: bury it or cremate it. If he buries it he would be left on the penultimate island. Or if he decides to cremate it with magic he turns the ashes into a gem maybe an aquamarine and wears it as a necklace forever.

Shanks is left with the trauma of seeing Buggy die. He often has nightmares of witnessing Buggy dying and not being able to anchor it. And the spirit of him disappearing forever.

The crew returned from Laugh Tale. EVERYONE IS IN SHOCK BECAUSE BUGGY DIED AND NOW HE IS SHANKS' FAMILY MEMBER.

Buggy is a spirit, but since he is a familiar he can have a physical body. He still eats. But if he will not starve.

How his familiar can make him submit to his will. But he does not. Shanks loves Buggy so he doesn't boss him around.

Over time Buggy and Shanks adjust to their new dynamic. Buggy can change the look of him. So he tries different hairstyles. Shanks loves to see him change. Until Buggy decides to keep his hair long.

Buggy realizes that they can't hurt him if he's in his spirit form so he tells Shanks: You won't have to protect me in battle anymore you can fight freely.

And Shanks tells him that he will still protect him because there are still ways to harm spirits.

They understand that they are connected. When in a fight Shanks is hit very hard and Buggy slightly feels the blow. Shanks worries and fights back harder.

(Buggy felt when Kurohige and the Sea King hurt Shanks)

When Roger is executed. Buggy wants to go away and be away from Shanks. Shanks hurts him, but lets him go. They separate. They always know each other's location.

(Here the familiars age at will following the age of his master. And Buggy doesn't want to be a child forever so he follows the age of Shanks)

Shanks can summon Buggy just by saying his name. Buggy will appear next to Shanks no matter if they are on opposite sides of the world.

Shanks would ask permission to summon it. Not wanting to pull Buggy against his will.

(Buggy starts to go voluntarily when he feels that things are complicated. Like to help him escape)

Shanks saying: I need you here with me.

And Buggy instantly appearing to hug Shanks.

Being on a binge. Shanks tells his nakamas: Do you want to meet the love of my life? And Buggy shows up.

All fascinated by the beauty of Buggy. He has a ghostly aura when he is summoned. In the eyes of others, Buggy appears to be an ethereal being.

(The nakama think their relationship is romantic, but then they realize it's kind of sad. And they worry about Shanks)

They may have heated arguments with Buggy blaming him for his death and Shanks replying that he shouldn't have done it to his familiar. Where maybe Shanks orders him to be at the opposite end of the world. And Buggy appears out of nowhere in a place he doesn't know.

The reason why they managed to imprison Buggy in Impel Down. It was that Garp realized that he was a familiar and used a seal to capture him. Shanks tried several times to call Buggy to get him out of Impel Down but it didn't work. The only reason Shanks didn't go to Impel Down to save Buggy was because the world would find out that Buggy is a familiar and Buggy doesn't want that.

Shanks takes care of his life. Because if he dies. Buggy will too.

And that may also explain Shanks avoiding conflict. He is strong. But he doesn't want to fight if Buggy will feel his wounds.

Buggy sometimes responds with venom that gets over him because he is dead and there is no future with him. It is better that he falls in love with someone who is alive at least. But Shanks only wants Buggy.

And of course there is the other drama that Shanks could have a son (with Makino) in order to leave his son to Buggy, and Buggy to continue having adventures and exploring the world.

But Buggy can't imagine a world without Shanks.

They leave together.

Always together

Thank you @circotriste. Thanks to you I can expand this new world of ideas S/B

#shanks #buggy #shanks x buggy #buggy the clown #red hair shanks #AU #Fanfic #fic ideas #Lamento el desorden y el mal ingles pero mañana tengo un turno de 24 horas asi que debo publicar esto AHORA

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intuitive-revelations · 4 years ago

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Ok, party ended early so a bunch of immediate thoughts on The Halloween Apocalypse, before I rewatch it:

I noticed that a LOT of what we saw in the trailer comes from just this episode, which means we have very little idea of what's coming up.

I'm also sure there's a lot of interesting details in the snippets we did see, hence why I want to comb through it later.

Immediately noticed that those Division agents had the same gun as Ruth!Doctor. I think the holograms might have shown circular gallifreyan, but it was hard to tell as the writing was quite pixelated.

Swarm described his transformation as 'renewal' which immediately sets off early-Who / Morbius continuity vibes.

He also spoke about the agents' work towards 'division' not 'the Division', which makes me wonder just what the word means. Something related to the Anchoring of the Thread and its effect on spacetime maybe, dividing the 'Dark Times' universe from the new? Makes sense with him supposedly having been imprisoned since the beginning of the universe, but that also likely being hyperbole, that we may well dig into some more ancient Gallifrey lore.

Actually the fact that a crystalline creature experienced its own version of regeneration kinda makes me think of Eldrad?

@doctornolonger said it already, but yeah, Karvanista being a Division agent feels VERY Wardog-y. Makes me wonder if its a bit of a reinvention of that bit of lore to avoid stepping on Marvel's toes.

(Side note: I love Karvanista)

On the other hand his line at the beginning about the 'final hours of planet Earth' while technically true, feels like a bit of lazy writing making him seem menacing to start with, given the reveal that his species are trying to rescue humanity.

Outpost 'Rose' is interesting. Not sure what to make of it yet.

The TARDIS spawning new doors. Could that be related to how it's failing to track the multiple incursions? Like it's literally trying to materialise in multiple places at once.

Actually, the TARDIS seems kinda sick in general, especially with regards to that leakage (which now that I think about it, reminds me of the timeship leak in The Pilot that took over Heather).

When the Doctor checked under the TARDIS console, was she using the chameleon arch headset in some way? I guess it could just be a reused prop, but with what she said about a 'glitch' I'm not sure...

CORRECTION: just checked it, I didn't catch that she said it was an MOT on her mind, implying the glitch was her connection to Swarm. She's DEFINITELY using the chameleon arch for it, though hopefully it's just jury-rigged for another purpose?

"Thirty Trillion Light Years Away" is actually surprisingly far for the Sontarans to be. It's not too surprising they'd get so far away given their tech level, but usually they're a very Mutter's Spiral/Milky Way and the rest of the Twelve Galaxies centric species. Makes me believe that these ones, at least, must have little connection to the Sontaran-Rutan War.

OK, the 'Flux'. The description of it actually makes me think about the theoretical idea of 'vacuum decay' where a quantum field is able to decay to a lower energy, effectively creating an expanding bubble of spacetime where the laws of physics are different to what we're used to, most likely tearing apart atoms. It's pretty much the closest thing to a universal weapon in real life physics we have.

This is also quite similar to Davros's reality bomb.

Now that I think about it, the effects on molecular structure also kinda remind me of the effect of the Eye of Harmony being left open in the TV Movie. Maybe something similar connects the flux to the TARDIS's ill health?

The idea of the laws of physics changing also, again, kinda ties back to the early Time Lords?

It seems either to be intelligent, given how it seems to have very specific targets, however, rather than being an expanding sphere. Alternatively, there's something attracting it to its targets, including the TARDIS. Maybe something to do with importance to the Web of Time? Or Artron energy?

Small detail I found amusing: when the Doctor takes evasive action we see the Flux destroy a blue gas giant, not resembling any in our Solar system, despite just having been on the edge of it. Was that the real life hypothetical 'planet nine', or another one of the extraneous planets (think Vulcan, Marinus, Mondas, Planet Five etc.) from Doctor Who lore sometimes said to be in the Solar System?

Alternatively, maybe the evasive action briefly took the TARDIS to Alpha Centauri?

#Doctor Who #Doctor Who: Flux #Thirteenth Doctor #The Halloween Apocalypse #DW Meta #DW Theory #Doctor Who Spoilers #DW Spoilers

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be-ready-when-i-say-go · 3 years ago

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Illuminated (Mini-Series)

I’m procrastinating on grading and almost finished season one of Peaky Blinders. Please enjoy this smattering of feelings.

After a long day, Ruth and Tommy strike up a conversation over a cigarette. Tommy's not planning to spill his guts and it helps that he doesn't have too--Ruth sees him.

Black!OC. One-Shot.

Transparent (Part 2) | Fervent (Part 3) | Reverent (Part 4) | Deliverance (Part 5/Finale)

__________________________________

If it weren’t for the streetlights, Tommy would lose her completely. But Ruth stands under the light, partially illuminated. Though the men from the bar are loud, Tommy listens to the way she exhales. He should’ve answered her question--about what he wanted--more honestly. But he did want power. He was sick of being under. He’d been under enough during the war and even before it. The war just made it more real. Tommy resolved to not be under even if it killed him.

Though, what Tommy wanted was his sleep back, not bristling at a loud sound and having to shrug it off, not struggling. He wanted a semblance of peace, even if it was just sleep and everything else stayed the same. Peace was tough as a Peaky Blinder-in that there would always be a fight, a scheme, a shoulder to look over and a cap to swing. But that’s what he really wants back, something back of the old Tommy to make everything in the world feel right side up again. But power--power is easier. Power means keeping the world right side up for Tommy. It’s just not the full truth. And he’s not even sure he could admit that outloud. Not to Ruth.

“I have a question. Just to make sure I’m hearing you right,” she asks.

Tommy, lips pressing around the cigarette, nods. He’s not sure if she can even see it. Though he suspects he’s much more illuminated by the light than she is.

“You want fear over love? To have your name strike the core of every man, woman, and child, to have them step out of your way and never into your embrace? You want the cold embrace of distance. You want to be a man that dies alone. You want power because it puts you away from everyone. What can be lost with distance if you don’t have or need anyone else. You’re just a boy still. You’re still scared but you’re not Arthur, you don’t drink yourself into a stupor. You’re not John who’s sense and youth still blind him. You’re Thomas fucking Shelbey a boy who went into war and a boy that came out of it. But a boy who’d killed and does death really make men out of us? Or does death and war make us realize how all of the rest of the world--those who haven’t fought--are still babies in comparison? You are fighting, still. It’s easier to say that you’re fighting a battle you picked now. But you cannot tell me you’re not stick of it--fighting.”

He pulls the cigarette from his lips. “Where’s your question in that whole spill? You said you had a question.”

“Do you want the shovels to stop?”

Tommy blinks. How had Ruth known about the sound that kept him up at night? He hadn’t told her. He hadn’t told anyone. And yet, Ruth knew. Like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, even if it wasn’t always seen, it was known. And she knew. Tommy continues to stare at her--dark eyes and skin and she bores her stare back at him. He blinks again.

A game of chess unfolds. He can tell her. He can let the thing that’s been burning his chest finally burst through. Or he can redirect. He can still hold it close to his chest. It would kill him--mentally before it would physically. And physically, he might be writing his death certificate with the guns, and the copper, and Kimber. But Tommy thought well on his toes and knew how to make a backup plan for the backup plan.

He has no plan for this-- for someone to have sight on him and about him in ways that he thought he’d covered. “I think I’d kill again for them to stop.”

It shocks even him as the sentence falls over his throat. He chalks it up to the night. The ways in which the street lights hardly light her skin and the reddish hue reflects back up into his eyes. It’s like a confessional--if Tommy still cared at all about religion. But he doesn’t mistake the way that the night feels like that screen he’d grown to hate as a child, only now it finds him a soft respite.

Ruth's seen what kind of person Tommy is even if he pretended like she didn’t. She’d known about the shovels that were chasing Tommy at night--when he wasn’t high, and when he was trying to get himself together the shovels were tapping away in the night.

Ruth’s touch is soft on his bent elbow as she speaks, “I know the war cursed a lot of people and in different ways. I think it cursed you to always be a fighting man now.”

The orange glow of her cigarette falls before it’s covered by the shoe covering her foot.

“You think there’s a powder trick for that?” Tommy asks. He means it as a joke but something in his voice is desperate to his own ears.

“Someone once told me that religion is a foolish answer to a foolish question, but yet, they’re asking the foolish question anyway,” she laughs.

The levity of the moment lingers and much like her cigarette, it falls slowly--but only if you watch it and quickly if you’re not paying attention. Tommy, flicking his gaze up from the cobblestone streets, looks over her head down into the parts of the city where the lights blink but only in pockets. There’s a darkness that settles in thickly and only the sparse few street lights help brighten anything enough to not be stumbling into houses and corners.

“How’d you know about the shovels?” Tommy asks over her head. He doesn’t trust himself to look at her--to have her see him again.

“You think women talk, but you’ve never been a woman in a room full of men before. They think I’m invisible. Suit shop is busy and when Thomas Shelby is your leading act, you have to come up and follow strong too.”

Tommy nods. Of course, the tailor shop. New suits were a luxury even Tommy couldn’t always afford. But the thing that helped was having the tailor shop on their books. “But I don’t talk--not about myself unless it’s business.”

Ruth laughs. “Tommy, the boys that fought alongside you talk--it provides them comfort. They talk to me because I’m not a wife. I’m not a sister. I’m not an aunt. I am a nobody to them, the blank slate. All I have to do is make sure I don’t prick them.”

He looks at her. The way she’s staring up at him even though he hasn’t spared her a glance until right now. “Prick Arthur though--next time he comes in.”

Ruth sees it--the quick quirk of his lips, but Tommy’s rearming himself. But she’d seen Tommy underneath the steel gaze. And that’s all she needed--she needed just a glimpse of the person behind the cap, the one that wandered too late at night in the streets. “Tommy, I hope you get some rest,” Ruth says, taking one step back. “Real rest.”

“At least let me make sure you get home safe. Pol will have my head if I don’t.”

“I’m only three blocks away,” Ruth returns. She’d purposefully chosen an apartment closer to the shop due to her long nights after the contract with Polly. She spent most of the day on orders for the regular folks and most of the evenings working on whatever the Blinders needed.

Tommy takes a step forward, then another and the cigarette he’d been nursing falls to the ground too and is crushed under the step of Tommy’s boot. “Well, walk with me then,” he commands and starts down in the direction opposite of where Ruth knows his place is at. She’d previously dropped off a mended suit jacket to him one evening on Polly’s request.

“You don’t stay in this direction,” Ruth states but turns anyway to follow him.

“I have business this way.”

Ruth wants to ask what kind of business, but she doesn’t. The Shelby reputation proceeds them and though Ruth’s first introduction was through Polly, she doesn’t miss the looks from people when one of the brothers is around.

Silence, outside of the click of Ruth’s heel, swallows the two of them. It’s not uncomfortable to Ruth, though she does find herself glancing up to Tommy’s locked jaw and the almost permanent furrow to his brows. It’s enough to almost make Ruth reach out and smooth her hands over the skin. The question bubbles--when was the last time someone touched you without the intent of causing harm?--but Ruth doesn’t ask.

Ruth hooks the left at the end of the street though and Tommy’s turn is sharp on his heel. The snicker shakes her shoulders and Tommy watches her. “I’m sorry to have missed the joke.”

“Your turn,” Ruth answers. “Military sharp--not something I expect out of the cool Tommy.”

Tommy looks over his shoulder to the corner briefly. Had he really turned that sharply? “You know what they say about bad habits,” he returns, stuffing his hand in his pockets.

Ruth nods at his statement. The silence settles back around them as they walk. But Tommy catches it, the way Ruth walks with her shoulders rolled back. She stares straight ahead, never looking down at her feet. She commands the sidewalk they are sharing.

“Do you have a husband?” Tommy asks.

“And if I do?”

“Then I would say the man that married you is smart and tough.”

“And if I don’t?” Ruth asks.

“Then I would say you’ve lucked out and not married any cowards.”

Ruth nods, turning her head for a moment. “Then I’ve lucked out and not married any cowards.”

“Are you afraid? To be alone in a city like this? It’ll chew a girl like you up.”

Ruth doubts his fishing for John, though the rumor was that John was desperate to find a wife to help mother his children. Arthur can hardly rub two sticks together and no woman really wants to baby the town drunk. Maybe Tommy was really curious. Though, she’d lived in the city for over a decade. She’s fine and will be until she either leaves or dies. “Are you saying you’re worried about me?”

Tommy slows as Ruth does and watches her fish out her key. He makes sure to keep himself a couple feet from her. He watches the way she leans into the stone of the building. She reminds Tommy of himself--the way she poses a question to fish for something deeper. But Tommy wishes he still had a gentleness in him. Ruth went out of her way to care for the sick in town when she wasn’t working for them. She got groceries for the elderly that had no kin and she was always more than willing to help a struggling mother.

Tommy hadn’t forgotten his roots, but he was focused now on getting on top, he was focused on getting out from being under that he hadn’t really noticed the ways he was slipping away until he was staring at someone that saw him. Thus, he was forced to see himself. Ruth was holding a mirror up to Tommy and he’s sure if she had a real one, Tommy would not recognize the hollowness in his eyes.

“I’m saying it would be awful to find a new tailor who does as good work as you,” Tommy returns. He smiles though, because Ruth will get it.

“I’m sure it would be tough to fit in all the interviews in on a tough schedule like yours,” Ruth chuckles. She nods back towards the building. “This is me.”

Tommy nods. “This is you.”

“Thanks for making sure your best tailor made it home all in one piece.”

“Of course,” he nods.

Ruth gets to her apartment on the second floor and manages to catch the receding figure of Tommy down the street. She watches him rounding the corner and then he disappears, the tails of his coat billowing behind him and then that fabric disappears too. She wonders if she hadn’t dropped off a finished piece for Harry at the Garrison, if she’d ever had a conversation like that with Tommy in her normal quarters, where she marked, lined, and pinned pieces to make or fix.

But she cherishes the moment--the divide in the cosmos that allowed this rare form of Tommy to surface is not to be taken lightly. What if she hadn’t asked Tommy for a light? What if he hadn’t teased about her having a cigarette being a sore sight? What was it that Tommy really wanted and was looking for from her?

The night seems to have had an affect, Ruth was sure, wouldn’t bleed into the morning. She’d been soft to Tommy, but not naive and she was glad to be drop his bucket to remind him that not everything had to be a fight or a scheme.

Ruth’s usually the first to the shop--a symptom of her own inability to sleep too well at night thanks to those phantom cries. But at the door is another figure. She knows the cap on the head anywhere and she widens her stride. She isn’t late for any appointment but that doesn't mean the business of the night doesn't demand the urgency of the day. A couple feet away the figure turns their head and she can see more clearly who it is--Tommy.

She holds his gaze and nods. “Good morning.”

He returns the gesture. “Morning.”

Ruth works quickly to unlock the shop doors and when the gears click, she pushes the door open for Tommy to enter first.

He waves for her to go, “Ladies first.”

Ruth steps in without word but pauses at the coat rack to take his coat. Tommy continues past her deep into the shop. The windows let it in a good amount of light and he can see where the platform is and walks to the edge it--right on the edge of being under and over. One step up and he could be over, standing in the spot where everyone does in this place to ensure that Ruth gets proper measure without over sacrificing her own back.

Tommy chooses to say under. Off the platform. “I wanted to make sure you’d make it in alright,” he states looking at Ruth.

“I’m in one piece,” Ruth returns. “What about you? You’re not hiding pieces of you, are you?”

“Not yet today, anyway,” he says shaking his head. Ruth still stands near the door, though she does slip out of her coat. “I also wanted to say thank you.”

“Thank you?”

“Thank you,” Tommy confirms, stepping towards her now. Ruth finally puts her coat up on the stand. Tommy stops hardly a foot from her. He can see now the depth to her brown eyes. “Thank you for wishing me real rest. I can’t say I got any. Those shovels. But I still appreciate it. And to say to you more directly, power is the easy answer.”

Ruth sees that the rest wasn’t good--she sees it all the time on his face. “Don’t we all love the easy way out.”

“I heard you had a husband.”

“Go talking to your aunt Polly before coming here?” Ruth asks.

“I heard he left you.”

“It’s like you said, I lucked out.”

“I know that he was a stupid man to leave you behind.”

“I was once a stupid girl to care for him, his mistress, and their baby while I was still married to him. He brought her home not too long before she was due to give birth.”

Tommy watches the tick of her jaw. There it is--the true emotion underneath it all. She was angry and if it’s true--which he had no reason to doubt--then Ruth had every right to be angry. “Men are dogs, aren’t we?”

Ruth tsks, “Not listening are we? That’s the easy answer.” Tommy watches her, the way she leans into the desk. Her gaze is unsteady as she gazes out of the window. “I can’t have children, body’s not suited for it.”

“So you’re angry at yourself.”

“I’m angry at a lot of things.”

Tommy exhales a tuft of laughter. “Don’t we love the easy way out.”

Ruth finally looks back up to Tommy. She watches his gaze fall from her eyes to lower on his face. The talk had meant more than she’d known and Ruth is partially grateful. But she knows what Tommy’s look means. His back faces the window--the world can only see her. Ruth wonders if he’s worried. But Tommy didn’t really seem like the type to express that outwardly.

Ruth and Tommy are staring at each other and Tommy’s not closing in. Ruth doesn’t move, but the gravity between them shakes, like it’s waiting for one of them to close in. It’s like they’re both begging each other to give in first, but too stubborn to cave themselves. Ruth hadn’t been blind to Tommy’s looks. He was attractive, but she had no means to get her business mixed with her pleasure. Though, in some ways, if Tommy was taking the risk it had to be worth it.

“You don’t want to do this,” Ruth says. She can’t tell if she’s saying it for Tommy or for herself.

“I thought you knew me, Ruth. Am I a man to do anything I don’t want?”

“You’re a man that’s used to getting his way,” Ruth returns. She tries to make it dismissive, but she can’t help her tiny smile.

Tommy shrugs, grinning a little. “Maybe I’m a man cursed to always be fighting and knows how to fight for the things he wants. After work, you’ll go to the Garrison. I’ll ask you for a smoke this time.”

“Hard to ask me for a smoke if you’re always hidden away in that room.”

“I promise for you--I’ll be right there at the bar, Ruth.”

Tommy almost catches her hand as she stands up and he pushes towards the door. Their fingers just barely brush over each other as Tommy steps out of the door and into the gloomy autumn day. It’s so fast Ruth’s not sure if he meant to do it, but when she watches him out of the window, heading deeper into the city, she sees the way he flexes his fingers. Like he’d had them curled and swung at firm bone, but no--all he’d done is barely touch her.

#thomas shelby #thomas shelby fanfic #thomas shelby fic #tommy shelby #tommy shelby fanfic #season one: peaky blinders #season one tommy #h writes #peaky blinders

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mermaidsirennikita · 3 years ago

Note

AS OF NOW IN YOUR LIFE who are your favorite heroines of horror content?

I love many things about you, Liv, but one of my favorite things is your determination to tee your friends up for FANGIRLING.

So in light of watching Prey, and then rewatching my favorite parts of Prey, and then telling everyone I know to watch Prey, I obviously must say NARU is easily a top tier horror (and action) heroine for me.

You know what I love about Naru? Aside from everything and Amber Midthunder's performance? I love the fact that she begins the movie essentially wanting to prove that she's "as good as the boys", but throughout the film she must access not only the hunting skills she's built up over the years, but the "feminine" training she tried to reject. In fact, the movie highlights that physically, Naru just can't do some of the things the other hunters do. Like the moment when she almost dies in quicksand! Physically, she's just not quite as big or built as the men in her tribe. But she has still worked fucking hard, and she's able to combine that effort with the things she's learned from her mother to be this ULTIMATE hunter.

I. Just. Fucking. Love. Her.

Going down the list:

Adelaide Wilson, Us--I think what strikes me about Addy, aside from Lupita's performance (my favorite Lupita performance still) is the brutality innate to her story. She's very much a.... morally gray... heroine. If you can call her the heroine, which I do. You end the movie feeling like you don't actually know her, and that's a quality I just love.

Rosemary Woodhouse, Rosemary's Baby--This movie is one incredibly dark horror show for Rosemary, and she's basically denied agency throughout the narrative. But I think that she's incredibly sympathetic and lovely, and you feel this naturally independent spirit in her, this desire to be free. Is Rosemary fighting a satanic cult, or is Rosemary fighting like... society? Anyway, definitely one of the best "surrender to madness" endings in film, and yet another sick performance, this time from Mia Farrow.

Sidney Prescott, Scream--I mean. Obviously. I really just love Sidney because she's a classic final girl, and she never gives up this edge of trauma and softness despite her general badassery. Truly don't know how I feel about the upcoming Scream without her, tbh. The cast is good, but a Scream without Sidney is kind of upsetting. Also, just pay women what they're worth.

Grace Stewart, The Others--Again, I love a descent into madness. Grace is just a mom, man! Just a mom with two sick kids trying to keep her shit together with her husband gone away to war as her house becomes increasingly creepier. I still think this movie has one of the best horror twists ever, and it's achingly tragic and so focused on Grace in a really bold way. This movie goes to a place where I don't think a lot of movies would.

Theo Crain, The Haunting of Hill House--HOW I ADORE THEO. She's caustic and soft at the same time, a natural loner who's nonetheless ultimately devoted to her family. A woman who wants to feel nothing because she feels everything. A party girl who fucks every lady that moves but is also a caring child psychologist. Fabulous.

Dani, Midsommar--Look man, Florence Pugh has been annoying in recent months but this performance is still king and I really just... love the way that the entire movie is just one long downward spiral for her, lol. Maybe that's mean! But for real, I just love the way she goes from like... sad to broken to resentful to numb to completely fucking BONKERS.

Ruth, Prevenge--You know what, nobody I knows has seen this movie but I really enjoy it lmao. And it truly is a woman-centric horror movie. A pregnant woman whose boyfriend died in a climbing accident hears instructions from her unborn baby to kill everyone connected to his death. VERY LOGICAL OF HER. This movie is sick and funny and I feel so weirdly sympathetic to poor Ruth. You keep going, Ruth!

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whaleofatjme1920 · 4 years ago

Text

Right Back Where You Started

[Masky/Timothy Wright X F!Reader]

[Warnings: slight blood, slight violence, language]

[AN: Four of my OC's are in here! This was also requested from a friend a while ago.]

The beauty about being able to live a life outside of murdering people and being at the whim of a monster that fancies itself as a god is a variety of your own accord.

For instance, you can wake up whenever you feel like, take a job wherever there’s openings, meet new people and not have to bash their brains in just for asking about your life and only need to pick up a blade to cut food or occasionally packages you impulsively bought on the nights that feel like too much and not enough all in one. You can breathe and not worry about inky black tendrils crushing your throat for doing so without his permission. You’re able to sleep at night knowing that no higher up in your group will attempt to kill you in an act of proxy related hazing. You can clear your mind temporarily of the thoughts of what may come next in trade for semi-normalcy even though you know those thoughts won’t go away anytime soon. The weight of what you’d done was too much to bear, and Atlas can only disappear for so long.

When you first decided to betray your boss, the tall man in the woods, the faerie that steals children away, you acted on impulse. It was an impulse that was born from being all too exhausted with risking your life, committing sin upon sin and other terrible, no good things that should ever be uttered. The decision you made on impulse had no foresight or planning, and when you decided to run, you ran as far and as hard as you could away from him. Away from them. Away from it all. Of course, you know there were going to be repercussions for running like so few others did.

The ire of the Slender Man being the worst.

Most days, you try not to think of him. There’s no point - well, maybe there is a healthy fear you still have - but to worry yourself into a stupor would be silly now. You’ve been free of him for a year. He hasn’t sent you any signs, nor has he sent anyone… Maybe you weren’t important enough to set him off like some of the others had.

These are the things you like to think about as you sit on your couch watching the late night news that’s barely audible as you scroll through your phone. You never really did like the total silence an empty house provides. There’s a simmer cup of tea on the coffee cup and a few snacks laid out that you have little plans of eating while you relax and enjoy the midsummer night. Outside, you can hear crickets sing and cicadas accompany them. It’s peaceful, and while your mind would like to think of it as such, you can’t ignore the ringing in the back of your head. Things have been pleasant, too pleasant. There’s bound to be a storm due to roll in.

Still, you try not to think of these things, and instead focus on the content that scrolls in and out of your vision. It’s nothing particularly interesting, but helps get your mind off the things that often keep you up. And you continue to sit there on the couch, wrapped up in a light blanket to combat your AC as the hours of the night tick by. Your mind is completely off of really, any higher cognitive thought, when you hear something. It’s soft, low, sounds like two, maybe three people and they’re out in the distance. Must just be stumbling onto the borders of your ‘farm’.

See, the funny thing about trying to integrate into normal human life is that you physically can’t. You can follow all their customs, get into their society, look like them, but you’ll never be fully human. You want to know why? Proxies can never go back to what they used to be. They’re forever changed, and no force on heaven of earth can ever get rid of that. He can take your memory and dump you on the side of the road, but your biology has forever been changed. In most cases, it’s a nice thing to have: faster healing, better pain tolerance, heightened senses, and a better sense of problem solving than most people. Other days, it’s a hindrance for reasons you can’t quite explain. Some call it Slender Sickness, and the only way to remedy it is to be under the tall man’s care.

Because you’re not, you’ve found other ways to remedy the sickness he inflicts on practically everything he touches. Pills. You find them in odd, strange places, but they get the job done. So long as you have them, you can be free of his grasp and his connection.

But goddamn, the hearing is mostly a hindrance. On the account of you living on the edge of a college town, you’ve got land and are surrounded by farmer’s fields. You heat it all- critters in the night, teens messing with the patches, arguments, sometimes crimes, and it keeps you up at night. That’s a downside to not having him in your life- he’s not there to dampen its effects when it becomes too much. However, in this specific instance, your heightened hearing is a blessing.

The feeling in your gut only furls together tighter as you hear the three strolling down your dirt road. They’re close, much too close. You know that they’re here for you.

Frantically, you jump off the couch and start to damage control by making the place look like no one inhabits it. The TV and lights are turned off, the mug emptied of its contents, snacks put away and other leads buried. Your heart pounds a mile a minute - you know that if he finds you, it’s all over.

He’ll kill you - the Slender Man is not known for his mercy.

You feel like a chicken with its head cut off as you look around the house for weapons before settling on the kitchen knife. It’s cliché and reminds you of someone you once heard whispers about, but it’s all you can think of in this moment. When you left this life, you left the physical parts of it as well. All your gear, weapons, they’re hidden in a place that’s too risky for you to even attempt getting. Armed with the kitchen knife, you debate running out the back or hiding, then running. You always were good at staying out of sight, hiding it is.

Your eyes dart to the basement door and you slip through right as you hear the three outside your front door. There’s a window that opens in the direction of the town. If you slip out of it, you’ll be able to get a good headtstart through the field. The moment you start booking it down the stairs, you hear your front door get blown open.

“Wallace, what do you think?” You hear a male’s voice ask.

“Someone’s been in here recently,” a deeper male voice responds - must be Wallace, eyeing over your living room.

In the darkness, you quietly maneuver the crowded, cluttered basement, mentally cursing you left your phone upstairs in your haste.

“It feels like someone’s been in here,” Wallace’s voice continues. You can practically hear him smelling the air. “Ruth, tell Nyein to sniff this one out.”

You hear boots scuff against your wooden floor and stop somewhere in the doorway. “You could always just ask them yourself,” the female voice identified as Ruth verbally shrugs. She clicks her tongue, and you hear even more steps. How many of these people are there? You hope it’s just four. That’s a well sized group, come to think of it. “Ny, can you please sniff this one out? Seems like they’ve done a good job at scent covering.”

A beat of silence passes.

“Don’t give us any attitude,” the first male voice hisses slightly. “Do what you’re told-”

“Theo,” Wallace sharply reprimands.

You hear Theo sigh right as you reach the window. You pray to whatever deity will have you that it won’t squeak or make any loud noises, but the thing hasn’t been opened in gods know how long. You use the blade to lightly cut through the layers of off-white paint before the window is free. You mentally smile before attempting to lift it.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Nyein got your scent. Their pupils dilate upon realizing you’re the one the Slender Man has requested alive. You hear someone rapidly padding to the basement.

Panic fills your veins as you struggle to get the window open, not even caring that it’s making all the noise in the world. You need to get out!

“She padlock this thing?” You hear Ruth ask before she grunts. The door can’t hold them back forever.

You frantically push up on the window - it's a quarter open, not near enough for you to slip through. Shit, shit, shit! You need to go NOW.

“Jesus- just break it already,” Wallace sighs.

A few more grunts and you hear the wood splinter. You hear them descending the steps quickly.

“There!” Theo points.

You hold your breath and push the window up with all your strength before hosting yourself up.

“Shit! Out the front! Ny, keep on her,” Wallace commands as he smacks Ruth and Theo’s shoulder, the two quickly following him up the stairs.

You begin to shimmy out the narrow window as the being called ‘Nyein’ eyes you down. You don’t think you’ve ever seen an independent like that before. They look absolutely feral, and the scent of you has them locked on your crawling form.

Their eyes narrow, teeth bared, and they quickly lunge across the space for you, right as your legs reach the windowsill.

You cry out in surprise as their clawed hand digs into your ankle, drawing blood you know you can’t afford to worry about.

“Get off!” You shout in retaliation, kicking at their face. Freed, you begin to sprint into the field.

Nyein snarls and crawls out the window as well, running after you with a speed that has you on edge. You continue to run. Behind you, you can hear the other three quickly gaining on you as well. How badly does the Slender Man want you? Your lungs light on fire as they chase you through the field. Soon, you’ll be hitting the small stretch of trees before you reach the town. With other people, you’ll have a better chance at being safe. But the stretch of woods is an awful mess of brush and loose soil. You can’t afford to misstep now.

You take in a deep breath as you hurl into the small stretch of trees, all too aware of the proxies and independent that are hot on your trail. In the back of your head, you can tell they’re tired of you. Good. They should be. You narrowly avoid twisted roots and piles of mud and grow closer and closer to other people.

It’s so close that you can almost touch it.

Lost in your thoughts and too tunnel visioned in on reaching the town, you fail to recognize the steel jaw trap in the darkness and send your shoe right on it. It clamps down, bites, and holds you. You screech and fall forward, careening into the forest floor. The pain in your leg is absolutely agonizing, and you claw at it in vain to free yourself as your pursuers close in on you.

“Gave us quite the chase, Reader,” Wallace says with a slight scowl as he crouches a healthy distance from you. “Should let you rot here,” he muses. You can’t see his face both from the darkness of the night and the fact he’s wearing a mask, but you can tell he’s upset.

“Or let Ny eat her. Been a while since they’ve last had anything,” Theo adds on, glaring at you through the eyeholes of his mask that’s the head of a pig.

“He said he wanted her alive,” Ruth chimes in, a sigh in her tone. “She’s already fucked herself up enough, let’s not rub salt in the wounds.”

“Put her to sleep then,” Wallace shrugs.

You look up at these people like a caged animal, your eyes narrowing and slightly watering at the pain of the steel jaw trap. You feel yourself inching closer and closer to the earth subconsciously as Nyein eyes you like a prize.

\ They reach their hand out to touch you before you smack them away. Their snarl, their eyes traveling down to your ankle where the blood smells the strongest.

“Do it before they eat her,” The deep voiced man says again. “Though, last I checked, Ny doesn’t eat proxies.”

“She’s a traitor, not a proxy,” Ruth lightly corrects, her gaze alone shushing you from making any noise.

Not wanting to work yourself up, you settle for cursing them under your breath.

Without any other words, Ruth comes up to you, resting her boot on your chest to keep you down. You attempt to grab at her leg, throw her off balance, but she’s stronger than you on account of still being an active proxy. Her dark eyes scan you up and down before she reaches into her back pocket. “Take a deep breath for me,” she murmurs before smacking the rag to your mouth and nose.

You flail about, screaming and cursing before reluctantly taking that breath.

“... Thank you, you’ve done well. Head out to - yes, that’s right, Theo - head there and I will give you further instruction.”

You blearily come to on the carpet of an office you hoped you’d never be back in. The smell of jasmine and incense hangs in the air. You hear a door shut and catch the boots of the people who brought you back to him leave the room. He must be sending them out to their next assignment; it’s probably some poor other bastard that won’t escape like you did. You take in a few timid breaths and allow the light to filter in.

There he is, your boss. He stands in front of you like a god. He has no face, but you can tell he’s more than upset.

“Miss Reader, what a pleasure,” he says in a deep, authoritarian tone.

On instinct, you feel yourself shrinking.

“Really?” He muses, inky black tendrils sprouting from his back. “You have the nerve to run from me, suppress me, and now you do this? You dare show your submission?” He hisses. The tendrils move like bolts of electricity as they wrap around your exhausted, terrified form.

You cringe as the tendrils take over every part of you, squeezing as if they’re threatening to break your bones if you so much as breathe out of turn. Tears well in your eyes as you remember the fear you used to feel rushing back and overloading your senses.

“You’re absolutely pathetic,” he spits as the tendril wrapped around your neck begins to constrict. You notice his body language bristle as he looks at you longer. “I could pop your eyeballs out of your sockets. I could tear you limb for limb,” the Slender Man continues like it’s nothing.

You feel nothing but malice radiate off his form. It’s heat that singes your very soul. “S-Sir,” you gasp out. “Why would you b-bring me here just to k-kill me?” You attempt to reason, eyes watering and vision going fuzzy. You weakly attempt to use your fingers as a barrier between the constrictor and you. You can’t take this low oxygen any longer - not with him physically inhibiting you.

A cold chuckle reverbates in your head while the vision of wolf’s teeth smile at you, as if they’re ready to snap. “You always were smart,” he notes, loosening his grip ever so slightly. “I could rip your head from your shoulders and it would make none of the difference.”

“Answer my observation,” you weakly cough out before he holds you tighter. You struggle to move your limbs. Your blood feels hot.

“Masky,” he suddenly calls out, hand gesturing to his office doors.

You’re barely able to move your head and settle on shifting your eyes instead to those large, oak doors as they open just a crack.In slips a man in a tan coat. He’s got dark hair, bags under his eyes, and he looks exhausted - more exhausted than you feel. He doesn’t look at you but instead focuses on the Slender Man.

“Sir,” he greets, bowing his head slightly in reverence.

The Slender Man hums, clearly pleased. You see the wolf’s jaws smile in your mind’s eye.

“Reader, you will be under his care now,” the Slender Man says. “If you successfully spend half a year at his side, I will reconsider tearing you apart.” He says it so nonchalantly that you feel chills run up and down your spine.

You furrow your eyebrows. “What?”

“Do you oppose me?” The Slender Man asks. “I am being more than generous, aren’t I?”

“Don’t take this offer for granted,” you hear Masky quietly add. Somewhere, deep in the back of your mind, you can hear Masky telling you not to push him too far.

Hesitantly, you nod, voice too weak to say anything physically.

The Slender Man’s tendrils suddenly retract from you, sending you roughly to the carpeted floor.

You yelp as you come into contact with the carpet and slowly gather yourself as you try to push down the aches and pains that bloom on your joints and shins that hit the ground particularly hard. You cough a bit as air returns to your lungs and struggle to stand.

“Do what you must,” the Slender Man waves off, turning his back to both you and Masky.

Masky finally breaks from his stance and moves quickly to your side to help you up.

At first, you try to smack his hand away, but upon realizing you’re too weak to even see straight, accept his hand and his arm when you’re standing upright. He smells of cigarettes and some out of date cologne. It’s not bad.

The two of you hobble out of the Slender Man’s office with Masky’s eyes never leaving your form. After all, you are his responsibility now. He continues to lead you through a mansion you’ve grown to despise and out into the warm summer morning. The Slender Man could never imitate the beauty of earth to its entirety, that much was apparent.

“Where are we going?” You ask in a rough voice, attempting in vain to clear it by coughing.

“Stop that,” Masky sighs as the two of you cross the lawn. “To the parking lot, getting in the car, then driving across the border to Mississippi. We’ve got a temp there,” he murmurs. “You good?” He’s mentally wondering why your healing hasn’t damage controlled this yet. Probably the boss still being mad at you is the best reason he can come up with.

“Do I look like I’m good?” You dryly respond, eyes squinting slightly as the fog begins to kick up. You know you’re reaching the end of his reach. Once the fog clears up almost as quickly as it appeared, you realize the Slender Man’s practically kicked you both out of his realm. The walk was always longer when you truly were his. He must be severely pissed off at you. In a way, you’re lucky he didn’t kill you from the get go.

It’s best not to dwell on that thought though.

The rest of the walk is quiet and you’re in the car before you can count to 100 (your numbers are very jumbled though). You slide into the passenger seat and feel a little better at being able to rest.

Masky slides into the driver’s seat and sighs as he grips the wheel. “You have any questions, you ask them now in the car. I’m not putting up with your bullshit when we get to the temp.”

You roll your eyes and look out the window. “Who are you?”

“Masky, you heard him,” he’s pulling out of the parking lot and mentally thanking the gods he wasn’t killed alongside you. When the boss is in such a questionable mood, there’s no telling what’ll happen.

“You know damn well what I meant,” you cough slightly.

Masky scoffs before reaching into the backseat for a moment. His fingertips brush a water bottle, and upon realizing that’s what it is, grasps it and then tosses it to you.

You nod and take a sip, mentally frowning that the water’s been heated in the morning summer sun.

“I’m a group leader. Probably haven’t heard of us though, we’re not terribly monumental,” he begins as he flicks the turn signal on. “You’ve got three other people to watch out for. Hoodie, he’s the right hand, Toby, he’s essentially our middle child, and Kate. You’re replacing her and the hazing process will start up,” he finishes, now matching pace with the other cars that sparsely decorate the expressway.

You pout slightly and press your lips into a thin line as you gaze out the window at the rolling scenery. You’ve been here before. You’ve brought people back here this exact way before. They’re all unwanted memories. In response, your body language becomes unreadable.

This does not go unnoticed by Masky. “Yeah the attitude isn't gonna work,” he says as he glances over at you. “C’mon, you’ve been through this process before. We all have - what gives?”

With a sigh, you flick your eyes over to him to gauge his mood. He seems genuinely curious. “You do know that I ran away for a reason, right?”

Masky nods. “Sure, it was stupid though.” He takes a hand off the wheel for a moment to open his window. “What did you think would happen?” Sounds like he’s trying to pick at your brain.

“Anything but this,” you gesture angrily to your current situation. “I hoped to never see him again,” you groan, clearly frustrated. You chug some more water.

Masky breathes out slightly, as if he’s judging your answers. “Whatever. Forget about pulling something like that again because I’ll personally come after you if it comes to that,” he claims in a tone that’s far too serious.

You roll your eyes slightly, “sure, like you’ll-”

His eyes shift on the expressway, and after ensuring there’s no one that’ll cause a pile up on behalf of him, he hits the brakes, sending you lurching forward into the dashboard.

“What the hell?” You cry out in an exasperated tone, struggling to peel yourself up from the dashboard. You cry out in shock again as you feel his hand at the back of your head, successfully grinding your skull into the heated polyvinyl chloride.

“Get that thought of your fucking head,” he hisses, raising your head slightly before smacking it back down.

You growl back and relent. Once the pressure from his arm is gone, you shove him off of you. The car picks up pace again and you notice him wave to a person who passes by - they have a mildly concerned expression - and he smiles like he didn’t just slam your skull into PVC.

Welcome back to the proxy life.

You make it to Mississippi by mid afternoon. Masky brings the car down some dirt path where a house lays right on the Mississippi river, and you can smell traces of blood. They must’ve cleared the previous residents out.

There, on the porch in a muscle tee holding a can of coke is a man with his left cheek missing. He twitches slightly as he waves at you and Masky.

“T-This her?”

Masky nods.

“Can’t b-believe she g-g-gave Wallace’s g-g-group the s-slip,” he says in a slightly amused, slightly annoyed tone.

“Word travels that fast?” Masky replies with a slight chuckle.

The proxy before you nods with a small smile, “c’mon. I wanna g-g-get out of this h-heat. It’s a-a-awful out here,” he says with a playful grimace as he slowly rises from the front step where he had been sitting.

“Is Kate happy?” Masky asks as he watches Toby head in, then nods for you to go.

With a small frown, you do so. At least it’s air conditioned.

“Over the moon,” a feminine voice cuts in from the kitchen. She’s stirring a thing of lemonade.

Masky smiles slightly and takes a seat at the table. “We weren’t that bad,” Masky notes as Kate slides a glass of lemonade to the group leader.

She raises a brow at Toby who glances down to his open pop can. “So, this is the one he wanted alive for this term?” She questions as she glances at you, silently asking if you’d like some.

You mouth a ‘please’ before getting comfortable at the table.

“Weirdly, yeah,” Masky replies before taking a languid sip. “Thought he was gonna go for someone with more street cred, but, whatever. She’s our problem now,” he shrugs.

You look down into the pastel yellow liquid and furrow your eyebrows in annoyance. All of this, it was wrong. You hadn’t had to play by proxy rules in a year, and here you were, bottom of the rung, the runt. You hadn’t been a runt in gods know how long.

Conversation begins to flow between the three people around you as glasses of lemonade are poured. You sit in silence, listening because you know it’s not your place to speak. As far as proxy culture goes, you don’t really have any rights. Well, you’re in a better place than independents, but according to other proxies, you’re a glorified errand boy. They say to jump and you’re supposed to ask ‘how high?’ Your group’s word becomes gospel.

Apparently, Kate was this group’s runt before you came in. But, runts only stay runts for a certain amount of time. It’s possible for groups to not have runts - and that’s essentially what this group was doing. Kate had outgrown her runt status and was well considered the youngest (in experience) member of their group but had the same social standing as Toby. While it was a joke to refer to her as a runt, they hadn’t had one for a while.

That’s where you come in. You’re the first member to be considered a runt in quite some time. And you can tell they’ve been itching to take it out on someone.

“Where’s Hoodie?” Masky asks as his fingertips trace the lip of his glass. “Should be thrilled to see we’ve got another one.”

“Only t-thing holding h-him back from h-hurting you is the f-f-f-fact the O-Operator asked f-f-for us to t-take her,” Toby giggles slightly as he crushes another pop can. “He’s h-h-handling something, Should be c-c-coming back now, though.”

“Speak of the devil and the devil will appear,” you hear another man’s voice chuckle as the front door swings gently open.

Standing in the doorway holding a crowbar and wearing a white t-shirt is Hoodie - sans hoodie. It’s much too hot to be wearing one anyways. He haphazardly tosses the crowbar to the floor before closing the front door behind him, then begins walking towards the kitchen.

“This is her?” He asks as he takes a seat next to Masky, silently thanking Kate for the lemonade.

“Disappointing, right?” Kate lightly jokes, making Hoodie smile.

“In this form, sure,” Hoodie observes as his hazel eyes rake over your form. “She looks weak, scrawny, low endurance, probably forgot all her skills, what, with her being missing for a year?” He says it like it’s a game but looks at you like he despises you. “Not training her. Not my problem, and especially not in this heat.”

“She’s part of our group,” Masky replies in a slightly exasperated tone.

“No-Nose goes,” Toby suddenly blurts out.

Everyone presses their index to their nose except for Masky, who sighs dejectedly.

“For fuck’s sake,” he grumbles. “Let’s go, Reader. You’ve been awfully quiet.” The brown haired man says in a less than pleased tone, picking his glass up and momentarily pausing to place it in the sink.

You quietly follow in suit, nodding to your other comrades before following him out.

The nice thing about waiting for Hoodie to stir things up was that it was the late afternoon. The sun was beginning to sink below the horizon, and a breeze was beginning to shift through the air. It wasn’t near as hot due the sun no longer beating down on you. Besides, it was nice to get out of the house for a bit.

Masky and his group must have been staying here for a while, because he walked into the woods on this deer path like it was nothing and led you to a clearing. There were a few training things, but nothing of any substance - just a temporary fix until they were somewhere more permanent. Proxies are nomadic, after all.

“You still have a knife on you?”

“I would’ve stabbed you with it.”

He shoots you a look as if to tell you to watch your mouth and you holds your hands up.

“I’m joking,” you defend. “When I meant I wanted to never look back, I truly, deep down to my bones, meant it.”

Masky’s hand goes to his belt loop where he takes out a knife. It’s… severely dulled. Looks like he doesn’t trust you just yet.

“See that dummy? Show me what you remember and I’ll decide if we’re out here until midnight or not.”

The dummy in question looks gods awful. It’s missing an arm, the stuffing is all over the grass, and the poor thing looks like it can’t support its own weight anymore. You wonder which one of your comrades got it to this state of if this was a group effort.

You narrow your eyes and get a hold of the blade in your grasp. It’s much nicer than a kitchen knife - reminds you of what you used to use when you were but a shadow in the night. You glance at him, then the dummy, and decide to get to work.

There’s no use in running. The Slender Man will hunt you down regardless, and he won’t be as merciful the second time around.

“Stop stalling,” Masky chides.

You take in a breath, and do as told.

To say six months passed with ease would be a lie. It’s been six months of hell - and that’s mostly because you’re a runt paired with the fact you never wanted to be back here to begin with.

It’s been strange, you’ll give it that. The proxy in you took over faster than the human side of you could and you integrated back into proxy culture and society far easier than anyone expected. Of course, there were some moments where your group members would ruffle your feathers and put you in your place, but that was expected. To be a proxy is to be put under fire until you prove yourself otherwise.

You’ve gone on operations with them. Took lives again. Stole things again. You settled back into the life you originally left behind as if you’d never departed to begin with. That’s how deep the proxy mindset and muscle memory is embedded into those it takes hold of. It sets itself out to be the only thing you’ll ever know. You live by it, you die by it.

So, where have you been for the past six months? Well, still in Mississippi. About two weeks after you first arrived with your new group, you and the group moved down south near the ocean and have been staying there the entire time. Luckily, this place was considered a temp house for the people who owned it - they liked spending time in Europe - which left this place as yours. Besides, the Slender Man likes having you close. He was able to periodically check in on you with you being a few hours away as opposed to days. Why he was so interested in you, you’ll never know.

According to both him, and Masky, you’d been making good progress. By the end of your six months (lovingly referred to as a “trial run” by your group), you were half way back to what you used to be. It was disheartening to only hear “half” but it was better than nothing. A part of you wonders why you’re so inclined to get better when you should be focusing on leaving.

It’s not like you didn’t try.

You tried so many times that your group started a tally board and whoever found you first got a mark under their name. Whoever hit five before the board was reset got the next operation (or operation of their choosing) off. For the first few weeks when you were but a stranger with them, the punishments were harsh and unforgiving, like they hate you to your core. But, as the months went on, they went from fists to phrases. Eventually, you stopped trying to run so they no longer had to beat you. Every time you got that far off look in your eye, someone would reprimand you. It’s probably because they cared about you.

That’s common for proxies, bonding with your teammates on a level outsiders can’t understand. It’s mostly to keep you safe while out in the field. And unfortunately for you, you’ve been feeling that way towards your group. You’ve covered for each one at least once, and that gesture doesn’t go unnoticed. You’re in a strange place, if you’re being honest.

Take for instance now, back in the passenger seat of a car and heading back to Rosswood with Masky (he told you his real name is Tim) to talk with the Slender Man face to face. While the others in your group have been keeping up with him regularly, you haven’t seen him in person since well, six months ago. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t have butterflies in your stomach as you draw closer to the woods you once considered home.

“You nervous?” Masky hums as he turns the radio down.

“Yeah,” you reply, gazing out at the rolling fields again. “What if he-”

“It’d be stupid of him,” Masky cuts you off. “Six months of putting all this time and effort only to off you? Just… Just don’t say anything stupid,” he reminds you, a slight teasing tone lingering on his words. He looks at you with gentle eyes.

You scoff playfully. “Eyes on the road, weirdo.”

Standing in the Slender Man’s office this time as a welcome guest is weird. There’s still the scent of jasmine and incense, but there’s also something sweeter - like a memory he’s trying to provoke specifically for you. It’s warm, but not uncomfortably so, and it doesn’t feel near as suffocating as did that first time.

“You’ve certainly changed,” a deep voice says with an audible smile as it reverberates through your head.

“Sir,” you bow your head slightly.

“I’m going to make this short,” the Slender Man begins. “Miss Reader, I am satisfied with your progress these past six months.”

“Thank you, Sir,” both you and Masky reply.

The tall man hums. “However, you have only reached half of what you used to be. I believe the longer you stay in this group, the better you will become.”

You take in a sharp breath.

“Does that bother you?” The Slender Man doesn’t sound mad.

“I…”

Masky mentally clicks his tongue at you, and you glance over through the corner of your eye.

You decide to respond carefully. “I know normalcy… Sir, I don’t know if this life was ever meant for me, but,” you take in a deep breath and ball your fists to ground yourself. “If this is what you want of me, I will do it.”

The Slender Man chuckles. “Timothy, you’ve done an excellent job with this one. Perhaps I should have placed Pariah with you,” he emptily thinks aloud with another slight laugh. “I regret to inform you Miss Reader, that normalcy was never an option. You will go back with your team and you will continue to better yourself until I say otherwise.” He makes no move to stand from his desk, but his hands reach out.

Taking that as a nonverbal cue, you and Masky stand and each take a large hand.

The Slender Man’s fingers close around your much smaller hands before his hand leaves your grasp entirely. Instead of striking you, he gently cups your cheek. “Now go. I look forward to seeing you in six months.” The warmth is gone from his tone but lingers like doused coals in a still simmering fireplace.

“Thank you for your time,” Masky bows slightly, nodding for you to follow.

Without any other words, you nod to your boss and follow Masky out. The two of you trade silent conversation as you exit the mansion and back to the car. You slip in just like you did six months ago, and so too does Masky. The car comes to life, and you begin to peel out of the parking lot, back to Mississippi.

“How are you feeling?” Masky asks as he pulls down the sun visor after squinting at the beams of light.

“Not as bad as I thought,” you say in slight surprise. “Maybe it just hasn’t sunk in yet.”

“Or,” Masky begins. “You were always meant for this.”

You laugh in response and smack his shoulder lighter. “You know you’re not slick, right?” You tease as you stick your tongue out.

Masky chuckles deeply and gets back on the expressway. “I try when I can.”

“Oh really?” You pretend to be shocked. “Where was that smooth talking when I first met you?”

“Out the window because I just met you,” he retorts, a smirk playing on his lips.

“You are literally the worst,” you teasingly scoff.

“Right back at you,” Masky breathily laughs. His dark eyes stay focused on the road as

you get comfortable in the passenger seat.

“Really though,” you say as you stretch slightly. “Thanks for not killing me.” You look at him with such gentle eyes that he can’t help but smile just as genuinely in response.

Masky won’t lie, he was admittedly worried for you in the beginning. What with you running away all the time, speaking ill of literally everyone, almost getting everyone caught by the cops… You were colorful, for lack of better words. It’s been nice cultivating that into something better. Maybe you’d make something of yourself out of this garbage fire of a hiccup.

“It’s nothing,” he shrugs. “It’s my responsibility to watch out for you anyways,” he says as before honking at someone who almost swerved into your lane. “Besides, you’re not all too bad, and as long as it’s me making sure you don’t set shit on fire… Think we’ll be just fine.” He looks over at you and smiles warmly - it feels like the sun - before he turns back to the road.

You hum contentedly as your hand reaches for the radio. You turn up the music and let it play, a serene, comfortable silence falling between the two of you.

#reader #x reader #reader insert #masky #hoodie #marble hornets #creepypasta x reader #tim wright x reader #masky x reader #slender man

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lothcatlovesysalamiri · 4 years ago

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Thinking about all the people who are actually praying for Roe v. Wade to be struck down makes me physically sick. Outlawing abortion solves nothing. It only further oppresses economically disadvantaged women and forces them to risk their lives and turn to dangerous alternatives like Lysol. Whether you want to believe it or not, even if (when?) abortion is outlawed like you are praying to God it will be, it does not stop it from happening. It does not make women change their minds. It only kills them. (Read the damn article, even though I know it won’t change your mind because you have White privilege and it’s so easy and comfortable to judge from your ivory tower.)

You know what, pro-lifers? I am a pro-choice progressive Democrat who DOESN’T like abortion myself. You also know what? I recognize it ain’t my fucken business what other women do, and I don’t believe in holding women back or down. Being pro-life IS making a choice — you are CHOOSING to FORCE THEM to carry a baby they do not want, over a mistaken belief that the Bible says it’s wrong to abort. The law does not even acknowledge a fetus is a life and will not prosecute death of a fetus. Ever heard of that marble/mountain argument? At what point is a clump of cells an actual baby? A heartbeat? A brain? Furthermore — and I have held back from posting this next part for so long because it terrifies me to know the answer — if you believe a woman should be forced to carry to birth, and her life would be at risk as mine would should I become pregnant against my will, do you believe I deserve to die in childbirth? Do you believe it is “God’s Will”? Can you look me in the eye and say, “Yes, I am okay with you dying and leaving behind your young child, because that unborn child that was forced upon you against your will was more important”? Do you believe children being raised without a mother are better off, because by GOD if a woman becomes pregnant, abortion is SO WRONG that that bitch better carry till she spreads her legs again to deliver? I take it you’ve never heard of original loss, then, and how fucked up kids are when they lose their mothers. And a very merry FUCK YOU to you as well. 🙃

Tl;dr: OUTLAWING ABORTION SOLVES NOTHING AND ONLY SERVES TO HOLD WOMEN DOWN AND HOLD THEM BACK. YOU HAVE RUTH BADER GINSBERG TO THANK FOR YOUR WHITE PRIVILEGE TODAY, AND YET YOU THINK ABORTION IS SO WRONG OUT OF A MISGUIDED RELIGIOUS BELIEF. ALSO WE ARE NOT A FUCKING THEOCRACY!!! IF A FETUS IS NOT CONSIDERED A LIFE UNDER THE LAW, IT CANNOT BE MURDER! YOUR ARGUMENT IS FUNDAMENTALLY FLAWED!!!!

But there I go again, tryna argue with the right with silly things like LOGIC, when they argue with FEELINGS. UGH.

#abortion #roe v wade #roe vs. wade #tw: abortion #cw: abortion #I never thought this would happen #it’s awful #I also love all the MY BODY MY CHOICE republicans #like do you even hear yourselves #I get that a mask vs bAbY is different but #WOW #try different wording maybe

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kazoo5480 · 4 years ago

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Ruth woke up early and got herself ready. She also had her first treatment today, which should have been a little more terrifying to her, but she wasn’t. She had spent so many hours sitting with those undergoing their treatments, that she knew the drill, and laid out everything she might need once she got home within reach next to her bed.

Emma was making coffee, and already dressed. She had swapped her shifts around this week, thankful to M’s and the other waitress they had hired, and Zelena of course was understanding. She and David were joining their mom today, and her mom came out of her room as the thought crossed her mind.

“Hey Momma,” Emma said and placed a glass of juice on the table for her, and some buttered toast. Between David’s research and pamphlets, they were well-versed in making foods tolerable for their mom and what they could expect.

Dave had compiled a list of phone numbers on the fridge for everyone from Doctors to hotlines, and Ruth was adamant that they continue with their lives as normal as possible.

Ruby had gone all out, Ruth had amassed a collection of scarves within days, all colors of the rainbow, and Ruby’s grandmother had knitted her some nice soft hats to keep her warm.

The boys had taken over all lawn care and kept the house in tip-top shape, Regina brought freezer meals for at least a week, and a plethora of soups she could reheat at moment’s notice. Ruth smiled to herself, her tribe remained strong, and she would beat this. She was sure of it.

Killian had hardly spent any time at all at his place once he returned from seeing Liam and Elsa off. He had been spending most nights at their house, and Ruth noticed his clothes mixed in Emma’s hamper more often than not, and the same with M’s in with Dave’s.

Ruth smiled at that, but she knew that they were there supporting her kids, and her and her kids were supporting each other, so brave and determined to help out.

Emma waited for her mom to finish, and Dave came down with M’s, and M kissed Ruth’s cheek as she headed off to work. The three of them got into the bus, and Emma headed towards the hospital, following her mom’s directions of where they should park and enter.

Emma and her mom held hands tightly as they walked in, and she eyed her brother as they sat in the uncomfortable orange chairs, while their mom checked in.

Dave put his arm around his sister and pulled her in kissing her hair. They had made sure everything was in place, and Emma seemed fidgety. She hadn’t been in the water in days, and he knew she was going to snap if she didn’t get a chance to get out, get away from this overwhelming situation.

Emma had been there every step of the way and only agreed to keep her job to ensure they had more than enough income in the bank in case they needed it.

Dave felt guilty at that, Emma was still a kid, about to enter her senior year and she was working her ass off to help them ensure everything remained normal.

At first, he bristled at Killian’s constant presence in her bed, at their kitchen table, until he realized M’s was there just as much, helping make dinners, cleaning, folding laundry alongside his mother. Killian and Emma making dinner in the kitchen, making sure to feed their mom healthy meals.

They were an unconventional family, but it was theirs, and until Ruth said no more to any of it, their tribe would continue taking care of them all.

Dave watched in trepidation as his mom came to sit next to them, Emma scooting over a chair so he could hold her with his good arm.

“It won’t be long” she sighed and patted both of her kids’ knees. A few moments later, a nurse who introduces herself as Mal led them back to a room and helped Ruth up onto the bed.

Emma and Dave took opposite chairs at the end, and Emma handed Dave a book from her bag, and pulled out a surfing magazine, occupying her mind while the nurse got things ready. Dave watched and looked over noticing Emma watching the nurse’s actions as well.

Emma was soaking it all in, every movement, and the way the nurse measured the medications, laying out instruments on the small tray, and the nurse smiled at them letting them know Dr. Whale would be in soon to see them.

A blonde man strolled in, and smiled at Ruth, holding her hand, and explained to them what was going to happen. Dave and Emma listened and nodded, and Dave balked when the blonde doctor leaned down kissing Ruth’s hair, whispering something in her ear that made her smile.

“Friend of yours?” he asked his mom confused, and a little taken aback at his informality.

Ruth nodded, “Vik was one of my interns, and has been here a long time now. He is a wonderful physician David, do not imply otherwise. He was simply offering me some support, as he was the first person I went to after my diagnosis. He is my friend, that is all” she said, and Dave nodded at his mom letting it go and feeling a little silly for questioning his mom.

Emma sat there watching as the nurse came in, and set the IV bag upon a pole, and offered her mom a warm blanket. Emma knew that the medication could cause her mom’s body temp to drop, and she also eyed the basin placed next to the bed in case her mom got physically sick during it.

She pinched the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes calling out to her dad, begging him to help her momma get through this.

The window was cracked and the sun shining in, and Emma felt a warm breeze blow in. She smiled, it may not be him, but she liked to think it was him responding to her request. Ruth smiled at her daughter, feeling the breeze blow in too.

“Sunshine, read to me, anything, an article, or from the book,” she asked smiling.

Emma nodded, and took the book from Dave, and began to read aloud. Her voice soothed Ruth as she felt the medication slide into her system, setting her veins alight in protest. She took a deep breath, and Dave slid his chair beside her grasping her free hand, and gently rubbed it.

Emma kept reading, she watched her mom every once in a while, and Dave keeping her mom content.

Ruth looked up at the ceiling, the burning had subsided. She felt tired, but nothing major. She was hopeful, maybe her treatments wouldn’t be as nearly as bad as she had prepared for.

The hair loss she could handle, Ruby and Granny had gotten her set for that, but maybe physically the treatments wouldn’t be so bad, maybe she could still work. She held onto this thought that maybe she would get to keep a piece of her normalcy.

She smiled when Dr. Whale came in and sat at the end of her bed. “How is it going so far?” he asked her and dragged another blanket over her feet, tucking it beneath them.

“Just fine so far Vic, burned a little at first but it subsided. Now I am just tired, but overall, not nearly as bad as I had prepared myself for” she said.

He nodded at her and looked at her kids. “How are you two holding up? Any questions I can answer for either of you?” he asked, acknowledging Dave and Emma both.

“When she gets home, what can we expect, will she be nauseous right away?” Dave asked.

Vic thought for a moment before he responded. “Each patient is different and I know that is such a general response to your question. But the therapy affects every individual differently. Some carry on normally, with mild fatigue, others are completely wiped out and in bed for days between treatments. But your mom is stronger than she looks” he said and eyed Emma.

“You remind me a lot of your mom Emma when I began my residency” he smiled at Emma, and she smiled back and looked at her mom who gave her a wide smile.

“That’s my sunshine right there Vic, and this one here, my protector” Ruth said cupping her son’s cheek.

Dave nodded, “so it’s a wait, and see?” he asked, and the doctor nodded at him.

“I am afraid so. But here, I thought you might like to have this, I don’t think they give this out, but Ruth is my friend and a mentor to me. So, in the event you need help, or she needs help, side effects, any time day or night, call me. That’s my home number. I live a few blocks from you guys, so I can be there in a few moments” he said, and Dave clutched it in his hand like a lifeline.

“Thank you, Dr. Whale,” Emma said, and the nurse came in, smiling at Dr. Whale and Ruth.

“Ready Ruthie?” She asked, and Emma watched her extract the IV and tape her mom’s hand. She handed Ruth some saltines, and a cup of water, and adjusted the bed to a sitting position. “Take your time, I will be back in about 15 minutes to check on you, and we can get you out of here,” she said patting Ruth’s hand.

“Thanks, Mal,” Ruth said to her friend, and Dave handed her the crackers. Emma glanced out the window wistfully, and Ruth had an idea.

“When we get home, I think you should head to the beach Sunshine,” she said. Emma’s eyes widened and she began shaking her head.

“No momma, I will be there. Dave and you need me around today, It’s ok I promise” she said.

Dave looked at his mom and nodded in agreement. “Em, you heard Mom. She feels ok, you can help me get her home in bed, and I am not going anywhere. We both think you need a break” he said gently.

Emma looked down, “I should be there,” she said sounding small.

“Honey don’t be silly. Dave will be with me, and you have been there, every single day, all the paperwork, you both have been here for me. Bless Killian and M’s for knowing how to cook because you two are hopeless” she teased them. Emma laughed, and so did Dave.

“I can cook” Dave protested, and smiled at his mom.

“You can grill honey, different thing. But seriously Sunshine, it would make me happy to see you go to the beach, get a break” she said encouragingly.

Emma looked at Dave and he nodded, “I want you to Em. I need you to, you need a break” he said.

Emma looked at him, “I could say the same for you Dad” she said teasingly, and he blushed nodding.

“I’ll take M’s on a date this week, don’t worry about me,” he said, and Emma nodded.

Mal appeared again, and took a look at Ruth, removing her heart monitor, and handed Dave the instructions for aftercare and helped Ruth to her feet, and Dave wrapped his arm around his mom’s waist and led her to a wheelchair that Emma stood behind, and they led them to the exit.

Emma ran to the bus, and pulled up, Dave assisting Ruth into the front seat. He rolled the window down for her and hopped in back, Emma pulling away from the curb and headed home.

Emma went in and popped into her mom’s room realizing her mom had prepped her entire room for herself. Emma swallowed thickly, her mom needed to control what she could, and Emma had to respect that. She held the door open as Dave led Ruth inside, and got her into her bed.

Emma watched from the doorway, and Ruth leaned over grabbing her water, and her book, and smiled at her. “Go on Sunshine, catch some waves,” she said winking at her.

Emma smiled and nodded, she walked to her and leaned down kissing her head. “I’ll be back in a bit,” she said and left a note on the fridge. Killian was working until 4, so in case he came by he would know where she was.

She headed up to change and grabbed her bag. Dave hugged her on her way out, “I’ll see you later princess” he said and nudged her out the door. Emma pulled up at the beach, and she immediately felt like a weight lifted off of her chest.

She grabbed her board and headed toward the water. She dropped her stuff in a pile and spotted Ruby and Graham in the water. She paddled out, and Ruby turned to her and shrieked.

“Ah! Em, how did she do?” Ruby asked clasping Emma’s hand, her hazel eyes on Emma’s green ones, searching her friend’s face.

Emma nodded, “Great, as expected. Even set her aftercare at home up before we left” Emma said and smiled a small smile. Ruby laughed, and nodded, knowing how independent Ruth was determined to be.

“They kicked you out huh?” Ruby teased, and Emma nodded.

“Where’s Jones?” Graham asked, and Emma told him he was at work. Rob paddled up, and Emma was surprised she didn’t see him.

“Ah, our Marvel has arrived. Get ready, a set is rolling in with your name on it” he said smiling and patted her shoulder. Emma nodded and paddled out, the sun beating down on her skin, and the saltwater splashing her face. She smiled, a wide, real smile and it felt fucking fantastic.

Emma watched it rolling in, a solid 5-footer, and she swung around, crouching on her board. She waited, eyeing it, and turned forward as she felt the familiar tilt, and she skated down the face, a perfect tube forming and she sailed into it, running her fingers along the wall of the green room, keeping her eye on the opening ahead.

She sailed out, and she could hardly hear the hollers and whistles as she skated into the shallows. Emma sat a moment, and looking up, saw the most perfect rainbow in the distance.

“Thanks, Daddy” she whispered and paddled back out.

By the time they all paddled in, collapsing on the sand, Emma was not surprised at all to see Killian walking down the pier towards them all. He sat behind her, pulling her into his chest, nuzzling into her hair. “You ok Swan?” he asked, and she nodded, leaning her head back on his shoulder, kissing his jaw.

“Let’s get you home, M’s making dinner, actually Ruth told me everyone is invited if you want,” he said aloud to everyone.

“Did you move in Jones?” Graham elbowed him, and he shook his head.

“Nah, just spending a lot of time there to help Dave and Em the next two weeks, in case Dave needs help moving or lifting Ruth. Wasn’t sure what to expect mate, but Ruth looked ok when I left to come here for Em. Resting on the porch swing with a book” he said.

Graham nodded and clapped him on the back. “We should take the girls out next weekend,” he said, and Killian nodded.

“Let me just clear it with Dave, make sure he doesn’t need Em, or a night off himself, maybe Rob and Gina can stay with her, give them both a night off,” he said.

Emma held her hand out to him and pulled him to his feet. He grabbed her board from her and led her toward the bus. Emma tossed his skateboard in the back with her board, and she waited for him to climb in heading to his apartment. He looked at her confused.

“Arent we heading home for dinner?” he asked her curiously.

Emma nodded, “Yeah, but I need you,” she said and he grinned, opening the door, and running to grab her bag.

He unlocked the door quickly and as soon as it closed behind him Emma was in his arms, her legs around his waist as he made his way toward his bedroom, bumping into boxes, and the wall. Emma was only in her bikini, and he pulled the strings at the back and sides as he held her in one arm, mouths latched together. He set her to her feet and she lifted ripped them off, laying back on his bed.

Killian shucked off his shorts, and tee, and was on top of her in a second. Emma was grabbing his hair, as he latched on to her nipple, kneading and tugging the opposite one. She was panting, and he slid down, trailing kisses and his fingertips toward her hips.

He bent down splaying her thighs wide, his thumbs parting her pink folds, and dove in. He hummed as he began lapping at her, tasting her sweetness, and saltwater washing down his throat. Emma’s hips bucked as he inserted a single digit, warming her up, and added a second when he felt her walls relax.

Emma was thrashing against the pillow, his mouth doing dangerous things to her clit, but it wasn’t enough. “Babe, I need you, I need more” she cried out desperately.

Killian stopped, and wiped his chin on her thigh, crawling up her body, placing soft kisses along her chest and neck. He licked into her mouth, Emma’s hands gripping his neck, pulling him closer to her.

“Em, I am right here love, just hang on,” Killian said unlinking her hands from his neck and dropping them on his pillow.

“What? I can’t touch you” Emma said, looking nervously at him like she might cry.

Killian shook his head, “Of course, love, but I can hardly move like this” he kissed her and leaned back on his heels, pulling Emma up onto his lap. “Come on love, let me love you” he whispered with a smirk.

Emma’s heart stuttered in her chest as he pulled her into his lap, her knees on either side of his hips. She rose above him and sank slowly. Killian’s hand gripped her hip, tilting her back and the other snaked up her back into her hair, curling against her scalp and holding her as he kissed her, tilting her head to kiss and nip at her neck.

Emma ground herself deeper onto him, feeling so full that was going to burst. She panted and moaned as she rocked up and down him, his hand tightening on her hip, and in her hair.

Killian felt like his eyes were going to roll out his head, Emma squeezed his cock with each shift, her cries turning him on so much that he was fighting the urge to blow right there. He released her hip and rubbed at her clit and was rewarded with a warm gush of heat inside of her. Emma moaned and tucked her face into his neck, her pants heavier and louder.

Emma felt her orgasm coming, and she wouldn’t be able to stop it. Killian hooked his arm over her shoulder cupping it, pulling himself as deeply as he could fit inside of her, and his rubbing and grinding into her set her off like a goddamn firework. She screamed his name and gripped onto him, her knuckles white, his groan in her ear loud, as she felt him pulse inside of her, the warm jets enhancing her aftershocks.

They stayed wrapped like that for moments, breathing hard, not wanting to release the other. He leaned back and tipped her chin up to gaze at her. “I love you, Swan, so much,” he said tipping his forehead against hers. Emma felt the dam break and tears ran down her cheeks, and he just held her, letting her release everything in the privacy of their bed.

When her tears had slowed, he lifted her gently off of him, laying her back, and used his tee shirt to wipe at her, and clean her off. He hovered above her, “are you alright?” he asked gently.

Emma nodded, and her eyes finally looked into his. “I just love you so much, I need you so much” she whispered, and Killian smiled.

“Well that’s a good thing, I need you too,” he said and kissed the tip of her nose. He looked at the clock, “We need to get you, home love.”

Emma got up and walked to his bathroom with her bag, and came out a moment later dressed in a sundress, and scooped her bikini up and into her bag. “You’re coming right?” she asked anxiously.

“Of course,” he said and grabbed a few changes of clothes throwing them to her to put in her bag, and grabbed his mail as they exited to the street. He drove them to her house, and Emma slid her board out of the bus leaning it against the garage.

M’s eyed them as they walked in, Emma heading to the porch to see her mom, and Killian stopped to ask M’s if she needed help with dinner. She laughed and nodded. “You two ok?” she asked him.

He nodded, “just needed a moment,” he said and winked at her, and she nodded. She got it, she and Dave went to her place when they needed a moment too, sometimes the house stifling with the situation, and it was their self-assigned job to be supportive and love them, be strong to support them.

“Hey, um Graham asked if you and Dave and Emma and I wanted to go on a date next weekend. I said I would clear it with Dave in case you guys needed a night out yourselves” Killian said shredding carrots for the salad.

M’s hummed to herself, “We have a date Friday, I work the morning shift and Dave works the afternoon shift Saturday so we would probably be spending the night at my place. But I will ask him about next weekend, I am sure Rob and Gina would be happy to hang here, or Will and Belle” she offered.

Killian nodded, “Swan and I got Friday covered, I work the morning, and she works the afternoon, so I will be here all night with Ruth. You two go, enjoy yourselves” he winked at her.

M’s flushed and kissed his cheek, “I used to think I was so lucky with Dave, that he finally noticed me ya know? I know Emma felt the same after pining away after you. But now I see it as a big picture kind of thing, we are all lucky, to love and be loved the way we do” she said.

Killian turned those words over in his head and nodded. “Aye, I am lucky every day that she chooses to have me,” he said quietly, and M’s rested her head on his shoulder as she stirred the pasta.

Dave was reading to their mom on the porch, Ruth bundled in a blanket, and watching her son read. Emma came out the front door and kissed her mom on the head, and then her brother, sitting in the wicker rocker. “Hey Momma, how do you feel?” she asked.

Ruth sipped her lemonade, “Just tired Sunshine. Did you have fun at the beach? Catch any good ones?” and Emma’s eyes lit up.

“I got a solid 5-footer, and when I came out, a perfect rainbow was above it. I think it was daddy” Emma said smiling.

Ruth smiled, “I bet you it was. I have been chirping in his ear all day, asking him to watch out for you at the beach,” she said, and Emma nodded.

Dave interjected, “I am going to see if dinner is coming soon. You hungry yet Ma?” he asked.

Ruth nodded; will you pull that squash soup out of the freezer for me babe? I think I will have that and some noodles, no sauce” she said, and David nodded heading through the door.

M’s called everyone to eat a few minutes later, Killian coming out to help lead Ruth inside while Emma gathered her book and blanket off the porch, setting it on her rocker in the living room. They all ate and Emma and Dave cleaned up, Killian helped Ruth to her room and went to sit on the porch.

Thinking about his mom, his brother, he wanted to call Liam, he would do that tomorrow and let him know how Ruth’s first round went. Dave came out, handing him a beer.

“You alright?” Killian asked and Dave nodded at him.

“Long day is all. How was Em?” he asked Killian and Killian nodded.

“Seemed like the break was good for her, Ruby, Graham, and Rob were there too, she wasn’t alone. But it looked like some weight lifted off of her” he said.

Dave nodded, “Thanks, for her, dinner, just being here,” he said quietly, and Killian squeezed his good shoulder.

“We are family mate, any way you cut it. I am honored to be here for your mum, for Em, you. So are M’s and everyone else. Your mom has seen each of us through good and bad, the least any of us could do is be here for her, repay her in any way we can” he said.

Dave sniffled, and Killian allowed him his privacy keeping his gaze straight ahead drinking his beer. “I asked my mum to keep an eye on her, between her and your Da, Ruth will be right as rain Nolan,” he said and clapped Dave on the knee, walking inside.

Emma was laying in bed when Killian came in shutting the door and locking it behind him. He kissed the top of her head as she flipped through the Syllabus her high school had mailed out and was looking over the dates, so he let her be, and climbed into the shower.

Emma bit her lip as she looked, she marked her classes and electives and folded them up to mail back tomorrow. She was nervous, with School starting in another month, she thought to her mom, and how this was going to affect her schoolwork.

She would have to tell her counselor soon, that way if she needed to leave, she could. Dave couldn’t do it all on his own, he had the police academy coming up, and it wasn’t fair to expect him to carry the load all alone. She would talk to her brother tomorrow. Killian came out of the bathroom, already dressed for bed. He climbed in beside her, and Emma rolled into his arms. He stroked her back and placed a kiss on her hair.

“I’m glad we got some alone time today” she murmured.

“Aye, I as well love,” he said and pulled her closer, letting her snuggle into his chest and she laid her hand over his stomach. He sent another round of prayers up to his mum, for Liam, for Ruth, and Emma and Dave. His last thought when he fell asleep was how good it felt to hold his love in his arms, to be her strength, and how grateful he was for her.

Ruth woke up the next morning, and after tossing and turning all night, a restless sleep, she readied herself for work. The chemo only made her sick once in the night, and she made sure to be quiet, as not to wake any of the kids. She showered, and combed her curls out, dressing in her favorite yellow scrubs, getting ready for work.

Dave was in the kitchen making some toast and tea for his mom, knowing she was hellbent on going to work her shift as normal. The only comfort he had was that If something happened, she would already be at the hospital.

Something irked him about Dr. Whale, his affection toward his mom, and hers for him. Their mom had never dated or even tried after she lost their dad, so he wondered if there was another secret she had been keeping, something private only for herself.

He wouldn’t fault his mom for trying to find love, someone to care for as she got older, and have a partner. No one would ever replace their dad, and he had to come to terms that his hunches might not be so far off that Dr. Whale and his mom held a more personal relationship than she let on. He shook the thought off as his mom came into the kitchen looking normal, and ready for work.

“Good morning, did you sleep alright?” he asked her.

She nodded, “A little restless babe, but nothing I wasn’t anticipating. I have a short shift today, I should be home by 3,” she said taking the toast to the table, sipping at her tea.

Dave nodded, “Any dinner requests?” he asked.

She shook her head, “I’ll be fine with anything. Do you work today?” and he nodded.

“I have a 10 am shift, I should be home by 5, Killian has the same shift, so I am just going to ride with him,” he said.

Ruth nodded, “Emma?” she asked.

Dave shrugged, “I think she works the afternoon and night tonight. But M’s had the morning, and Ruby mentioned she would be by this afternoon at some point. Hunt is coming to cut the grass today at some point, not sure when” he said.

Emma walked into the kitchen at that point, Killian was still fast asleep. “Morning guys,” she said and looked at her mom. “You look, good Momma, sleep ok? She asked her, and her mom nodded.

“Do we have stamps Emma asked them” as she searched the kitchen drawers. Ruth got up and pulled one out of an envelope.

“What do we have to get for school Sunshine?” she asked. Emma shrugged, “I don’t know yet, but probably stuff I already have. I have to mail in my schedule preferences today, but I am going to contact my counselor, let her know the situation here, so if I need to be somewhere, that my teachers are flexible” she said.

Ruth nodded and looked at Dave. “And the academy?” Ruth asked him.

“I don’t start until mid-September, it will be after your last cycle, so I should be good,” he said sipping his coffee.

Killian came in the kitchen bidding them all good morning, kissing Emma’s cheek and then Ruths. Emma handed him some coffee, “We should make a calendar” Emma said. “That way we know where everyone has to be and when.

Ruth smiled and nodded. “That’s a great idea sunshine, you guys can all add your work schedules on too, in case,” she said.

Killian grabbed Emma’s envelope, “I’ll drop this off for you when we get to work, there is a box outside he said, and Emma smiled and nodded at him.

“Alright kids, I am off to work. Wish me luck!” Ruth said and waved them off, grabbing her badge and keys, heading toward her car.

“Ride together?” Killian asked Dave and he nodded.

“I am going to jump in the shower,” he said and headed upstairs.

Emma looked at Killian and he caged her, arms on either side kissing her softly. “You ok? Ready for school to start?” and Emma shrugged.

“I wish that I was in your grade, that this was over ya know?” she said.

Killian nodded, “it goes by fast, and you will have Ruby and M’s with you. It won’t be so bad at all,” he said smiling at her.

“You’re not going to be around though, in the mornings, or at night,” she said sadly.

Killian rubbed his finger over the ring on her right hand, “I am always here” he said rubbing it. “A few hours apart is the same as work, and I will be here at night, for dinner, sometimes sleeping, but you have my place too Swan. Let’s just worry about now, your mum has 2 more rounds to get through, the rest will fall where it may” he said and tucked a curl behind her ear.

Emma smiled at him and nodded. “Ok, yah. You’re right. I am getting ahead of myself. Anyways, M’s and Dave have a date night Friday, so I am going to hang here. If you want to head out and have a guy’s night, or whatever that is ok with me. You don’t have to hang here” she said.

Killian balked at her, “I am where you are Swan” he said and kissed her head. “But I am going to get ready for work and headed up the stairs.

Emma sighed, looking at the clock she realized her shift wasn’t until 3. She bounded up behind Killian and locked the door behind her.

“Swan?” Killian asked her, and she bit her lip walking towards him.

“I just wanted to make sure you had a good day is all,” she said smiling, and he grinned at her curiously. Emma toyed with the shorts he had just pulled on, unbuttoning them.

Killian eyed her, “Emma, now is hardly the…”

Emma sank to her knees, and pulled his pants down, pumping his cock. Killian was caught completely off guard by her, and the moment her mouth was surrounding him he sunk his fingers into her hair, grounding himself.

He wanted to groan loudly as she took him into her throat, quietly humming around him, he looked down at her and she looked up at him, her pink lips taking his cock in and out of her mouth, her warm tongue swirling around him.

“Fuck” he said as quietly as possible, and he felt Emma’s lips smirk around him. Her hand cupped his sac, and his hips jerked involuntarily. He was trying to keep her breathing steady, but Jesus christ she felt good.

Killian was lost in the sensation of her, he gripped her curls steadying her, and pumped himself in and out of her mouth faster, her jaw going slack around him, letting him take what he needed. He plunged in and out of her warm mouth at a punishing pace as she continued lightly cupping and rubbing his sac.

“Gods, Emma, I am going to cum” he growled and he stilled himself, Emma began slow sucks, and he erupted, shooting long ropes of cum down her throat. Emma took every drop, and licked him clean, tucking him back in his pants. She stood and began to button his pants, and he steadied himself by holding on to her hips in a daze.

He looked at her menacingly, and pulled her lips to his, kissing her deeply, tasting himself on her tongue. He placed his forehead against hers, “that was…”

“A way to ensure you had a good day,” she said sweetly and kissed him chastely heading toward the bathroom to brush her teeth.

He shook himself out of his daze and righted himself. Dave knocked on the door “Jones, let’s go” he hollered.

“Coming man, be right down,” he said. Walking up behind her, he kissed the side of Emma’s neck.

“You don’t play fair love” he murmured.

“Emma spit and turned to him. “I love you, have a good day,” she said and kissed him again, tasting of mint.

“I love you, more than anything,” he said, and she nodded.

“I’ll see you tonight babe” and shooed him away.

Killian bounded down the steps where Dave was waiting for him and pulled his keys out of his backpack as they headed to his car. He dropped Em’s envelope in the mailbox on their way in, and they jumped into their day.

Emma tidied up the house, made sure her mom’s room was clean, that dishes were clean, and looked at the clock. She had three hours to fit in, and she thought she could probably hit the beach for a little bit. She scribbled a note out and stuck it to the fridge, taking her uniform with her, and her hairbrush. She threw on her suit and headed to the beach.

She spotted Jefferson and Will laying on the sand, the water looked calm.

“Hey guys,” she said heading toward them.

“Hello Nolan,” Will said, and Jeff nodded in her direction. She noticed a bottle of blue juice next to Jeff, and Will and he both appeared to just be laying in the sun.

“What’s up? You guys just laying in the sun?” she asked with a smile.

“I was in the water, but nothing really rolled in, and ran into Jeff here, and decided to park it,” Will said.

“Jeff, you have any water?” Emma asked, and he held up a bottle in his other hand as an answer. Emma eyed Will and he grinned at her and held the bottle to her and she smiled shaking her head. “I work in three or I would say yes,” she said.

Will nodded, “I am going to throw a party next weekend, Belle’s birthday,” he said smiling.

Emma smiled and nodded. She wasn’t sure if they could risk leaving their mom like that, all night and it wouldn’t be fair to Dave at all. Maybe Dr. Whale would come to sit with her, she thought. She had been thinking a lot about the blonde doctor.

She spread her towel out and will slather her back in sunscreen for her, and she laid looking at a magazine. The guys were completely content being quiet, so she thought to the man who she thinks perhaps might have a thing for her mom. Her mom was a gorgeous woman, she had been alone almost 12 years now, and it would be wholly unfair to expect her to live the remainder of her days alone.

While Dave may not like it, Emma understood it. She thought she should maybe broach the subject with her mom, but decided she would make a family decision and call the man, ask him to come to stay with Ruth for the evening.

They had a couch he could crash on, and her mom would actually enjoy the company if he was free. If he wasn’t, she would let Dave head to the party and stay in with her mom, pamper her a little, watch a movie or something. But Emma just had a feeling that a not-date with the doctor might cheer her mom up. She knew better than to tell Dave this plan, but she would call him so he had notice, and surprise her mom.

Emma flipped, letting the sun beat down on her face, the sun warming her bones. She smiled, and Will noticed.

“Oi little Nolan, whatchu grinning about?” He asked and she rolled to her side and shook her head.

“Nothing, just happy for the peace ya know?” and Will nodded looking at the water.

“Well Alice, I can tell you much peace may be found when you tumble down the rabbit hole” and winked at her. Emma laughed shaking her head.

“You are watching him, right?” and Will nodded at her. “You guys wanna go take a swim?” She asked. Will and Emma each grabbed one of Jeffs’s hands pulling him to his feet. Emma slathered sunscreen on his back and face, as he giggled.

They led him to the cooler water, and he exhaled a sigh of euphoria, floating on his back. Emma and will shared a look and cackled. The three of them laid there floating for a while, and Emma gave Will some ideas for gifts for Belle, and he asked about school. It felt nice to just have a normal day.

She guessed an hour had passed, and helped Will drag jeff back to the towels, and gave him some more water. She combed her curls out so they would dry normal enough to pull back for work. She checked her watch and realized she would be late if she didn’t take off then, so she said goodbye rushing to the bus.

She changed quickly inside it and headed toward Rae’s and walked in surprised to see Killian at the counter.

“Hey Babe,” she said and kissed his cheek, and she ran to clock in, and throw her skates on. When she came out, Killian was still sitting there and was looking at her curiously.

“Did you enjoy the beach?” He asked her, and she smiled nodding.

She rolled her eyes. “I cleaned the house before I went Jones. But Jeff took acid, Will was there with him, we swam, floated, and now I am here” she said.

Killian laughed, nodding. “Sounds about right,” he said amused.

“Where does Jeff get his money from if he doesn’t work?” Emma asked him, and he shrugged.

“I am fairly certain his folks left him quite an inheritance when they passed, Liam would know, they are closer,” he said.

“Whatever. Why are you here?” she asked.

“I was waiting to see you,” he said smirking at her, and she heard “order up!” She grabbed it, and looked at it, handing it over to him.

He leaned over the counter to grab it and kissed her, “see you later” he said with a knowing smirk, and she shook her head smiling at him.

God he was so hot , she thought as she watched him stroll out. He always turned girls’ heads, and she felt like a lucky bitch that he was all hers. She looked to the lot which was empty and dialed the number she had scribbled down on her pad.

“Hello?”

“Dr. Whale? Hi, It is Emma Nolan” she said.

“Oh Emma, Hi. Is Ruthie ok?” he sounded concerned, Emma smirked.

“Yeah, I was actually calling for a favor. I was wondering if you weren’t working next Saturday would you mind staying with her for a few hours?” she said.

“I am not on call; I would be happy to. Does Ruth know you asked?” he asked her.

“No, not yet. But Dave and I both have something to do, and if you are busy or get a call in, just let us know. We thought since Mom enjoys your company so much, and you are a Doctor, that we would feel comfortable with asking you. She could probably use a friend, and you two seem like friends. I think she could use a night off from a revolving door of teenagers babysitting her, but we aren’t wholly comfortable leaving her alone” she said.

“Oh. Ok, yeah. Count me in. I would be glad to, I will bring dinner along for us” he said.

“Ok, well I am at work, so have a good day, I would say come by around 7,” she said, and he agreed. “Thanks, Doc,” she said and hung up smirking.

Emma just wanted to make her mom happy, and if having a friend to watch a movie or show with, who could help her if she got sick was with her, who she appeared to trust was there, that would be best Emma rationalized. Dave was going to hit the roof at first, but he would come around.

Emma felt like all three of them needed a break from each other and the house, and maybe Dr. Whale would take their mom out, a drive, fresh air, or something. Couldn’t hurt right? She thought. Seeing a car pull in, she skated out with her pad and started her shift.

Killian dropped Dave off at their house and headed to his apartment. He went to the phone, and called Liam first, dragging a chair over, and waited while it rang. Elsa picked up.

“Hello?” She asked.

“Hey Elsa, Killian,” he said.

“Oh, Killian Hi! Liam isn’t home yet, is everything going, ok?” she asked him.

Killian told her most of everything going on, so she could relay it all to Liam. They were not coming to visit for quite some time, but Killian promised that no matter what he would go to them, or host Christmas with them at his place.

Elsa was pleased. She asked after Ruth, Emma, and how David was healing up. He gave her the just of it all, and she said she would have Liam call him.

Hanging up, he eyes the unpacked boxes and decided now or never. Cutting the first one open, he quickly put all his books on the shelves that Liam gave him, and it took him only two hours to empty and break down all the boxes.

His kitchen was now furnished, and he headed down to the drugstore. He picked up toiletries for him and Emma, extra stuff they may need, and ran upstairs to put it all away in the bathroom.

He placed a few of the stolen photos of him and Emma in frames that were now displayed around the apartment, it felt a little homier. The tall money tree that Ruth gave him for luck sat in the corner, and he watered it, tilting the shades so that it got some sunshine.

He tidied his room up, did some laundry and it was only 7. Emma still had two hours before she was off, but he called over to the house to check on Ruth.

“Hello?”

“Ruth, it’s Killian. Just checking in. How are you doing, need anything before I head over in a bit?” He asked her.

“Nope. But you are amassing quite a bit of wardrobe here sir, you have to be running low on boxers” she laughed, and he heard Dave in the background. “David I see quite a bit of M’s underpants as well, so hush” she chastised, and Killian stifled his laughter.

“Alright, well I am just finishing the unpacking here, going to take everything down to the dumpster, so I will see you shortly, I think Em is off at 9,” he said.

“Why don’t I send her by your place? You can show her everything unpacked sweetie? I will come by this weekend perhaps and you can show me yourself” She said amused.

Killian blushed furiously. “Oh, Um ok. Yah, are you sure?” he asked.

“Absolutely Jones. Tell your brother to call soon, I miss him. Otherwise, I will see you tomorrow, and Emma later tonight” she said resolutely, and he agreed hanging up.

He shook his head laughing, Ruth really did know them way too well. But now he had two hours to plan a date, and he was taking advantage of that. He headed down to the truck and hit the market, and the flower shop. He was throwing together a pizza for them, and he arranged sunflowers in a vase Ruth had given them.

He showered and flicked on the small TV, and checked the TV guide, seeing what was playing. He flipped on a show and heard a knock sometime around 9:30. He opened the door and Emma stood there with a bag in her hand holding it out to him.

“Your underwear sir,” she said laughing.

“Hey,” he said and shut the door behind her. She smelled clean and he watched her take it all in unpacked.

“Wow,” she said and walked to the bookshelf spotting a photo of them, and smiled at him. “It looks great, homey,” she said and he nodded.

She spotted the sunflowers, “For me?” and he nodded.

“Your mum said she was sending you here” he laughed, and she smiled and nodded.

“She sent Dave to M’s as well. He huffed about it, but she said since I was right around the corner it was fine for a few hours” Emma said.

“Are you hungry? I made pizza” he asked her as he pulled it out of the oven.

She smiled and kissed him, “absolutely.”

Killian popped the radio on, filling the space with some music, and Emma told him about her little plan for the party at Wills, and Killian sensed she might be right that her mom could use some company that wasn’t her kid’s friends. He knew Emma was smart, and if she sensed this was the right move for her mom, then he supported her. He also knew Dave would blow a gasket.

After dinner, he showed Emma the bathroom. Her shampoo and conditioner in the stall, a razor, lotion she liked, her toothbrush, and a hairbrush. She smiled, her cheeks wide, and kissed him. “You always know just what to do, don’t you Jones?” she murmured.

“I never want you to doubt that you don’t have a place in my life,” he said confidently.

Emma nodded, and he placed a spare key into her palm. “In case I am not home yet, you can always be here. You might need it, studying, whatever. While I am at work or school, this is as much your space as mine Swan” he said.

Emma swallowed, not knowing what to say. She looked at the key in her hand and just nodded. “Thank you,” she said and hugged him. “I love you a whole lot, a dumb amount,” she said and kissed him.

He laughed against her lips and surprised her by scooping her up and heading toward his room. Emma didn’t make it home until after midnight.

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#emma nolan #david nolan #ouat #ouat au #1970s #once upon a time #killian jones #ruby lucas #graham humbert

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